\MBULATION
;IE HUNDRED
WIRRAL
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
A PERAMBULATION OF THE
HUNDRED OF WIRRAL
A
PERAMBULATION
OF THE
HUNDRED OF WIRRAL
IN THE
COUNTY OF CHESTER
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS, OLD HALLS
ANCIENT CHURCHES, AND INTERESTING VILLAGES SITUATED
BETWEEN THE RIVERS MERSEY AND DEE
BY
HAROLD EDGAR YOUNG
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
WM. FERGUSSON IRVINE, M.A., F.S.A.
ILLUSTRATED WITH MAP, AND FIFTY-NINE PLATES
" Oh, piper, let us be up and gonef
We'll follow you quick if you II pipe us on,
For all of us want to go there."
LIVERPOOL
HENRY YOUNG » SONS
1909
First Edition, October 1909
Second Impression, October 1909
Third Impression, November 1909
C6Y7
DEDICATION
MY "DEAR FATHER, — A good deal of water has
flowed down the Dee since you held me by
the hand and took me for my first walk in
the Hundred of Wirral, and gave me my first
swimming lesson in the Dee. Since those days
I have wandered far in Europe, America, and
Asia, yet have always returned to mine own land
with a greater love for it and its characteristic
scenery. In this little book I have attempted to
describe a small but interesting tract of country
in my close neighbourhood. Perhaps my reach
has exceeded my grasp, but I have done my best.
I have been fortunate in having the advice of
William Fergusson Irvine, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.,
who has done so much for Wirral history, and
who has generously allowed me to consult him
on some matters which were obscure to me. I
know I should have done better had I consulted
him more freely, but I desired to sail as far as
possible under my own flag. For his kindly
help he has already heard my thanks.
SC8655
DEDICATION
I have also been fortunate in receiving the
valuable assistance of Alexander Reid, Esq., of
West Kirby, who has supplied me with many of
the illustrations for my book. He has accom-
panied me wherever I have asked him, and has
taken the utmost pains with his pictures, develop-
ing and printing them with his own hand. I need
not tell you — for he is an old friend of yours —
that his work has been entirely a labour of love,
and I owe him a deep debt of gratitude for it.
My thanks are also due to Arthur D. Holland,
Esq., of Hooton ; J. H. Clayton, Esq., of Willas-
ton ; the Rev. F. Sanders, M.A., F.S.A., Vicar
of Hoylake; John R. Logan, Esq., M.B., C.M.,
of Liverpool ; J. Fleming Stark, Esq., of Brom-
borough ; Mr. G. T. Shaw, Chief Librarian of
the City of Liverpool ; and Mr. J. Harding,
Librarian of the Mayer Free Library.
It is but natural that I should dedicate this
book to you, even if affection did not impose it
upon me, for you have other and outstanding
claims. Seventy-three years ago you came, as a
small boy, outside a stage-coach, rattling through
the Hundred of Wirral before the era of the
steam locomotive, finishing your long journey
from Cornwall to Liverpool ; and in your seventy-
fifth year you rode your bicycle 75! miles in a
DEDICATION
day, completing the last stage of the journey on
the very road over which you had travelled in the
stage-coach as a boy ; and in your eighty-seventh
year, accompanied by one of your grandsons, you
rode your bicycle 43 miles in a day through, and
round and about Wirral.
If this work meets with your approval I shall
consider my labour amply rewarded.
I am, your affectionate Son,
HAROLD E. YOUNG.
SANDGATE, BLUNDELLSANDS,
September 1909.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
Leland's Description of Wirral — Books about Wirral —
Situation and Description of Wirral — State of Roads
— Architecture . . i
CHAPTER II
Birkenhead Priory — Tranmere Hall — Rock Ferry and
Nathaniel Hawthorne — Port Sunlight . . -15
CHAPTER III
Bebington — The Bebingtons and Flodden Field — Mayer
Museum — Cow Charity — Bromborough Pool — Court
House — A Model Village — Battle of Brunanburh . 28
CHAPTER IV
Eastham — Hooton Hall — The Stanleys of Hooton —
Edward Stanley— Sir William Stanley — The Old
Hall — Last of the Wirral Stanleys . . . -47
CHAPTER V
Poole Hall — The Poole Family — Overpool — Ellesmere
Port— Stanlaw Point— Stanlaw Abbey— The Cister-
cians . . . ... . . . .60
ix
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VI
PAGE
Stoke in 1816 — Whitby— Stanney— Stoke — TheBunbury
Family — Chorlton and George Ormerod — Backford
— The Birkenhead Family — Lea — Mollington —
Blacon Point — Great Saughall — Mrs. Mary Davies 74
CHAPTER VII
Shotwick— The Church — The Castle — Puddington Old
Hall — The Massey Family — William Massey and
the Pretender— The Fight— The Escape— A Gallant
Ride — The Lofty Seat of Puddington — Capenhurst 90
CHAPTER VIII
Willaston— The Old Hall— Red Lion Inn— The Wirral
Stone — Burton and the Congreves — The Bishop of
Sodor and Man — Burton Parish Registers — Burton
Woods — Quakers' Graves — Nesse — Lady Hamilton 103
CHAPTER IX
Neston — A Great Funeral — The New Quay — Neston
Coaches — The Church — Burne-Jones Windows —
Parkgate — The Smugglers — A Friend of Milton —
Theophilus Gibber — Charles Kingsley — Raby Mere 120
CHAPTER X
Wirral Footpaths « Association — Prenton — An Ancient
Road — Storeton — Storeton Hall — The Quarries —
Brimstage Hall — Brimstage Village — Gayton Hall . 142
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XI
PAGE
Heswall — Oldfield — Over the Fields to Thurstaston —
Thor's Stone — Thurstaston Hall— Dawpool, Hall
and T. H. Ismay— The Church— Irby Hall—
Landican 157
CHAPTER XII
Oxton — Over the Fields to Woodchurch — The Church
— Curious Charity — Rent of the Farms — Upton —
Bidston — Bidston Hall — The Derby Family—
James, 7th Earl of Derby — Bidston Hill — Wallasey
Church — Early Marriages — The Racecourse . .169
CHAPTER XIII
New Brighton — Leasowe Castle — Leasowe Racecourse
and Lord Derby — Horse-racing — The Lighthouse
— Meols Stocks — Dove Spit — Encroachment of the
Sea — Hoylake — Duke of Schomberg's Army — A
King at Hoylake— The Hoyle Lake— Rev. F.
Sanders, M.A., F.S.A. . . . , . .181
CHAPTER XIV
In the Footsteps of the Pilgrims — A Cell of Monks —
Pilgrims — Pilgrims in Japan — The Constable's
Sands — Hilbre — West Kirby — Ships and Shipping
in the Reign of King Henry VIII. — West Kirby
Church — Grange — The Glegg Family — On Going
Home . . 201
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
HILBRE ISLAND Frontispiece
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
THE WIRRAL HORN 12
BlRKENHEAD PRIORY facing 15
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
TRANMERE HALL „ 19
From an engraving.
PORTION OF WINDOW, TRANMERE HALL .... 20
PORT SUNLIGHT facing 27
From a photograph lent by Messrs. Lever Bros.
BY STORETON QUARRIES „ 28
Photographed by the Author.
BEBINGTON CHURCH „ 30
From a photograph lent by the Trustees of the Mayer
Free Library.
COURT HOUSE, BROMBOROUGH POOL . . „ 37
Photographed by the Author.
ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, LION AND CROWN, DRAGON „ 37
BROMBOROUGH POOL . „ 41
From a drawing lent by J. Fleming Stark.
BROMBOROUGH CROSS „ 45
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
THE OLD HALL, HOOTON » 57
From' an engraving.
HOOTON HALL: PRESENT DAY „ 58
Photographed by the A uthor.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PACK
POOLE HALL : SOUTH FRONT facing 58
Photographed by the Author.
POOLE HALL „ 60
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
FARM AND SITE OF STANLAW ABBEY . . „ 66
Photographed by the Author.
ANCIENT DOORWAY, STANLAW ABBEY . . „ 71
Photographed by J. R. Logan, M.B., C.M.
SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGE, STANLAW ABBEY . . „ 71
Photographed by J. R. Logan, M.B., C.M.
THROUGH EASTERN WIRRAL — THE SHIP CANAL . „ 73
Photographed by the Author.
STOKE CHURCH „ 79
Photographed by the Author.
CHORLTON HALL „ 80
From a photograph lent by W. H. Walker.
MOLLINGTON HALL ,,83
Photographed by the Author.
BLACON POINT ,,85
Photographed by the Author.
PORTRAIT OF MRS. MARY DAVIES 87
SHOTWICK HALL facing 9°
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
SHOTWICK CHURCH >, 92
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
INTERIOR OF SHOTWICK CHURCH . . „ 93
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
SITE OF SHOTWICK CASTLE „ 94
Photographed by the Author.
PUDDINGTON OLD HALL „ 96
Photographed by the Author.
WILLASTON HALL „ 103
Photographed by the Author.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PACK
RED LION INN, WILLASTON .... facing 104
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
THE WIRRAL STONE ...'....„ 106
Photographed by the Author.
BURTON HALL „ 108
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
DR. THOMAS WILSON, BISHOP OF SODOR AND MAN „ in
from] an engraving.
BIRTHPLACE OF BISHOP WILSON, BURTON . „ 112
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
QUAKERS' GRAVES, BURTON WOODS. . . . „ iiS
Photographed by the Author.
PARKGATE „ 129
Photographed by the Author.
A RELIC OF OLD PARKGATE . . _._/ . „ 132
Photographed by the Author.
RABY MERE „ 139
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
WHEAT SHEAF INN, RABY ,,140
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
DlBBENSDALE „ 141
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
ANCIENT ROAD, PRENTON ,,146
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
STORETON HALL — THE HOME OF THE STANLEYS . „ 148
Photographed by the Author.
BRIMSTAGE HALL ,,151
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
GAYTON HALL „ 155
Photographed by the Author.
HESWALL CHURCH „ 157
Photographed by the Author.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PACK
DAWPOOL HALL facing 161
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
THOR'S STONE . „ 162
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
IRBY HALL . . „ 167
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
HARVEST TIME, NEAR IRBY ... . .. . „ 168
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
WOODCHURCH „ 170
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
BIDSTON HALL . „ 174
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
JAMES STANLEY, 7TH EARL OF DERBY, HIS COUNTESS
AND CHILD „ 176
From an engraving.
LEASOWE CASTLE 1850-60 ,,184
From an engraving.
THE SUBMARINE FOREST „ 189
From a photograph lent by Rev. F. Sanders, M.A.
VIEW FROM CALDY HILL „ 208
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
WEST KIRBY CHURCH „ 211
Photographed by Alexander Reid.
CALDY „ 213
Photographed by Alexander Reid,
SKETCH MAP OF THE HUNDRED OF WIRRAL, SHOW-
ING THE AUTHOR'S ROUTE . at end
INTRODUCTION
WHEN Sir Gawayne sought for the Green
Knight, we are told that he came in his wander-
ings into "the wyldrenesse of • Wyrale," but no
one had heard of the object of his quest, and
so he left this wild and pitiless region ; a land
that, in the words of the Petition of the " poor
Commonalty of Wyrall " in 1376, "had suffered
great harm, damage, and destruction " from the
beasts of the forest, so that even the Churches
were desolate and Divine services withheld.
When Mr. Ormerod wrote his history a hundred
years ago, he saw but little change from this
dreary picture if we are to give full weight to his
words, for he speaks of nearly every village as
barren, desolate, dreary.
With such thoughts in mind, the reader who
takes up Mr. Young's book is as one who passes
from the gloom of a' cave into the full blaze of
midsummer sun. Truly the nineteenth must
have been a century of miracles to have wrought
such a change, and yet those who know this
delectable land will not quarrel with Mr. Young
for the warmth of his praise. Few large centres
xvii {,
INTRODUCTION
of population can, like Liverpool, boast of such
delightful and largely unspoilt country lying at
the very door ; country, moreover, that has
historical associations so full of interesting and
picturesque incident.
It is perhaps somewhat of a reflection on the
dwellers between Mersey and Dee that it is left
to a man from Lancashire to discover and tell
all the charm of the Peninsula of Wirral ; but
it is travellers who write the best descriptions of
the countries through which they wander, for most
objects are so familiar to the dwellers there that
they have long ago forgotten to notice them.
So coming from South-west Lancashire, where
the natural objects include Bootle, Widnes, St.
Helens, and other centres of industry, the fresh
green fields and flowery country lanes of the
Cheshire peninsula and the varied views of
mountain and sea have so inspired Mr. Young's
pen that he cannot but tell the things he has
seen and heard.
Mr. Young brings to his task the trained eye
of a man who has travelled and observed, and
he is able to take a wider view than the mere
historical student, for he has an intimate know-
ledge of the work that has already been done
in dealing with the history, geology, flora, and
entomology of Wirral, and, what is better, has
formed a shrewd estimate of the relative values
INTRODUCTION
of the different writers, and so is able to know
where to turn for his facts, and how much weight
to attach to each authority. Mr. Young does
not only address those who are interested in the
history and archaeology of the district, but the far
wider circle of readers who wish to know about
the district in which they live. At the same
time he has exercised such a wise discretion in
selecting and such care in checking his infor-
mation that the student of local history will often
find him a more trustworthy guide than more
pretentious authors.
WM. FERGUSSON IRVINE.
XIX
A PERAMBULATION OF
WIRRAL
CHAPTER I
LELAND'S DESCRIPTION OF WIRRAL
IT is only in comparatively recent years that the
Hundred of Wirral has received the serious atten-
tion of the county historians it so richly deserves.
Leland and the early itinerants describe it
briefly, and it has been questioned whether the
great Camden ever visited Wirral at all. The
industrious antiquary, John Leland, who was
born in London in the year 1506, and in 1533
was appointed by Henry VIII. to be "the
King's Antiquary," and given authority to
describe " all England's antiquities," wandered
through England in his arduous search for many
years, and a precious relic had to be well shel-
tered to escape his ever-watchful eye. So one
day about the years 1536-1539 he came into
Wirral, and describes it thus : —
" Wyrale begynnith lesse then a. quarter of a
mile of the very cite self of Chester, and withyn
X A
LELAND'S DESCRIPTION OF WIRRAL
a 2. bow shottes of the suburbe without the northe
gate at a litle brooket caullid Flokars Broke that
ther cummith ynto Dee Ryver, and ther is a dok
wherat at spring tide a ship may ly, and this place
is caullid Porte Poole.
" Half a myle lower ys Blaken Hedde, as an
armelet of the grounde pointing oute. At this is
an olde manor place longging to the Erie of
Oxforde, and theryn lyith sumtyme Syr Gul.
Norres.
" A mile be water lower hard on the shore is
a litle village caullid Sauheho (Saughall).
" Lesse then a mile lower is Crabho (Crabhall).
"A myle lower is Shottewik Castelle on the
very shore longging to the King : and therby ys
a park.
" Shottewike townelet is a 3. quarters of a myle
lower.
" And 2. mile lower is a rode in D(ee) caullid
Salthouse, wher again it (on the) shore is a salt
house cotage.
" Then is Burton hedde, whereby is a village
almost a mile lower than Salt (House).
"ii. myles lower and more is Denwale Rode,
and agayne it a farme place caullid Denwaulle
Haul. It longith to Mr. Smithe, and more up
into the land is Denwaulle (Denhall) village.
" ii. miles and more lower is Neston Rode, and
ynward a mile ynto the land is Neston village.
" About a 3. miles lower is a place caullid the
2
LELAND'S DESCRIPTION OF WIRRAL
Redde Bank, and ther half a mile withyn the
land is a village caullid Thrustington (Thurs-
taston).
" A mile and more lower is Weste Kirkeby
a village hard on the shore.
"And half a mile lower is Hillebyri, (Hilbre
Point) as the very point of Wyrale.
"This Hillebyri at the floode is al environid
with water as an isle, and than the trajectus is a
quarter of a mile over and 4. fadome depe of
water, and at ebbe a man may go over the sand.
It is about a mile in cumpace, and the grounde
is sandy and hath conies. There was a celle of
monkes of Chestre, and a pilgrimage of our Lady
of Hilbyri.
" The barre caullid Chester Barre that is at
(the) very mouth of the sandes spuid oute of
Dee Ryver is an 8. or 10. mile west south west
from Hilbyri.
" It is by estimation a XVI. mile from the
point of Hilbery to crosse strait over to the next
shore in Lancastershire.
" For Lyrpoole (Liverpool) lyith a X. miles
into the lande from the mouthe of Mersey Water,
and lytle lak of XX. from the very barre of
Mersey that lyith in the mayne se.
" From the poynt of Hylbyri to Lirpoole as it
lyith withyn the lande a X. mile.
" From Hilbyri to cumpace about the shore of
Wyral on Mersey side to Walesey (Wallasey)
3
KING'S VALE-ROYALL
village on the very shore, wher men use much to
salten hering taken at the se by the mouth of
Mersey, is a seven or eight miles.
" Thens a 2. myles to the fery house on Wyrale
shore, and there is the trajectus proximus to Lyr-
pole a 3. miles over.
" Aboute half a quarter of (a) mile upward hard
on Wyral shore is Byrk(et) a late a priory of a
XVI. monkes as a celle to Chester without any
village by it.
" Al the shore grounde of Wyral apon De
side ys highe bankid, but not veri hilly grounde.
And so ys the bank of Wyrale onto Briket on
Mersey side.
" The trajectus from Hillebyri directely over-
thwart bytwixt Flint and Basingwark is at the
ful se a VII. miles over."
The first printed work exclusively dedicated to
Cheshire antiquities was " The Vale-Royall of
England, or the County Palatine of Chester Illus-
trated, Performed by William Smith and William
Webb," published by Daniel King in the year
1656. It was in three parts ; the second by Wil-
liam Webb includes a most interesting Itinerary
of each Hundred, written in the latter part of
1621. The Rev. Daniel Lysons published his
excellent work entitled " Magna Britannia " in
1810, and devoted the whole of the second part
of volume 2 to the County Palatine of Chester.
4
BOOKS ABOUT WIRRAL
The year 1819 was an important one for the
Hundred of Wirral, for it was in that year
Ormerod, whose great History of the County of
Cheshire is a perpetual monument to his anti-
quarian and historical knowledge, published his
book, and bestowed great attention to the Wirral
peninsula. In 1847 Mr. William Williams Mor-
timer printed his history of the Hundred of
Wirral, a most excellent work, but now unfor-
tunately difficult to obtain; whilst in 1889 Mr.
Philip Sulley published a very good and useful
work entitled " The Hundred of Wirral," which
was illustrated, and contained a map. In recent
years Mr. W. Fergusson Irvine, M.A., F.S.A.,
the Rev. F. Sanders, M.A., F.S.A., Mr. Ronald
Stewart Brown, M.A., and Mr. F. C. Beazley,
F.S.A., have all written upon the Hundred, and
all of them have produced notable works.
But though all of these books are excellent, and
should be freely consulted by every one seriously
interested in the history of the Hundred, there
has not hitherto appeared any work which can
be used by those wishing to explore some of the
highways and byways of this interesting locality,
in which they would find something more than is
to be found in the ordinary guide-books of the
appearance of the Hundred, a description of its
principal roads, the interest attaching to its vil-
lages, its domestic architecture, old halls, inte-
resting churches, and a general description of the
5
SCOPE OF THE WORK
appearance of the surrounding country. It is
true that Mrs. Hilda Gamlin produced her book
entitled "Twixt Mersey and Dee," but that
again only partly described the Hundred, and it
would probably have been rewritten, had not
Death laid his icy hand upon the authoress some
years after she had published her work.
It is to supply this deficiency that the present
work has been undertaken, and although the
author can lay no claim to any profound anti-
quarian knowledge of the Hundred, he has freely
consulted the principal works written about it,
and he possesses an intimate knowledge of its
highways and byways, the result of nearly forty
years close acquaintance with the district. It
has been his good fortune to tramp the roads
when they were strangers to the motor-car, and
when the horses shied at the tall spider bicycles
which were occasionally to be found on the high-
ways; and although he has seen the Hundred
alter greatly in population, and means of locomo-
tion, yet despite its close proximity to the ever
growing port and city of Liverpool, there are
still portions of the district which are terra incog-
nita to thousands of people ; for it is still possible
in little more than a half-hour's journey from
Liverpool to find highways and byways, hills,
meadows and woods little altered in appearance
from what they were when the great Domesday
Book was prepared ; to see the hawk hovering,
6
SITUATION OF WIRRAL
to hear the nightjar, to see the squirrel leap from
tree to tree ; to wander by meadows and wood-
sides full of sweet-singing birds, and to pause
on some hill to admire the noble sea views ;
or to stoop to pick some pretty and interesting
wild flowers, for the flora of the Hundred is
good.
It is the author's intention to point the way to
these highways and byways, and to briefly de-
scribe some of the places of interest to which
they lead.
Wirral is somewhat singularly situated, for it
lies safely between two rivers — one of them one
of the most important waterways in the world —
which wash its shores on either side. Along its
western shore glides the silent Dee to its wide
sandy estuary, which, after passing Chester, shows
reach on reach of surprising beauty ; whilst on
the east the swiftly flowing Mersey hurries along,
bearing upon its broad bosom the largest and
swiftest steamers in the world. Away to the
north it is guarded by the Irish Sea; so that it
is a narrow peninsula of some eighteen miles in
length by about six miles in breadth, its southern
side ending in a low valley which spreads from
the River Dee through Mollington, Backford,
Chorlton, and Stoke to the river Mersey.
William Webb, M.A., clerk to the Mayor's
Courts of Chester, and Sheriff to Sir Richard
Lee, in his description of Wirral, written about
7
WEBB'S DESCRIPTION OF WIRRAL
the year 1621, and printed in King's Vale-Royall,
aptly describes it thus : —
" I have laboured," he says, " to cast the
Hundred of Werral by the dimensions thereof
into some resemblance, and though, geometrically
considered, it comes nearest to the figure of a
long square, or rather a rhomboides, yet because
the long sides are not straight lines, nor the op-
posite ends equal in their distance, we must take
it as it is irregular, and the nearest resemblance
that I can give it, is the sole of a lady's left-foot
pantofle, for the farthest north-west end, com-
passed with the sea, falls somewhat round ; then
it narrows itself both ways, and between Bebbing-
ton on the east, and Oldfield on the west side,
falls narrow of the sole ; then it widens itself
either way to Stanney on one side and Burton on
the other, where it is broadest; then narrowing
again till it points with the tip of the toe upon
Chester liberties. Mr. Cambden fitly calls it
a languet of the land, and promontory of the
mainland, shooting into the sea, inclosed on
the one side with Dee-mouth, on the other side
with the Merzey. The Welsh Britons call it
Killgurry, because it is an angle. That it was
in old time a forest, I think cannot be doubted,
but that it should not be inhabited, or disafforested,
not till King Edward III.'s time, that I suppose
to be true but in part ; for the very antiquity
8
DESCRIPTION OF WIRRAL
of the church, some castles, monasteries, and
the very manurage of the most part of it yet
appearing, argue the contrary.
" But I will not contend, for it sufficeth me I
can boast in behalf of the inhabitants there now,
and of their industrious predecessors too, that it
is now one of the most fertile parts, and com-
parable, if not exceeding, any other so much in
quantity of the whole county besides. And this
will our weekly market of Chester for corn and
fish make good for me, and if I added flesh too,
I should not miss it much."
No, he would not miss it much ; for the pro-
duce of the Wirral farms still helps to supply the
markets of Chester, Birkenhead, and Liverpool
with corn and flesh.
Wirral is perhaps one of the pleasantest tracts
of land in the three kingdoms, situated so close
to a large and busy city ; and although no rivers
of any great size meander through its pleasant
meadows to flow by large, clean-looking, and
prosperous farm lands, it can still boast of two
streams — the Birket, or Birken, and the Fender,
the former of which, rising in the neighbourhood
of Grange, flows in a somewhat meagre stream, it
must be admitted, for it makes its way slowly
and painfully across the plains to Moreton, whence
it used to empty itself into Wallasey Pool ; but
in late years its course has been diverted by the
9
DESCRIPTION OF WIRRAL
hand of man, and now the Mersey receives its
waters. The other is the Fender, which rises a
little north-west of Barnston, where it is known
as Prenton 'Brook, and flows hard by Thingwall,
passing under Prenton Bridge, by Woodchurch,
where it becomes the river Fender, and joins
its waters with the Birket, close to Bidston
Moss.
The farm fields are well ditched, and there is
a goodly sheet of water at Raby, called Raby
Mere, which is a pleasant place to visit, and will
be described in its proper place.
Generally speaking, the land is undulating, and
there are few hills of any considerable height, the
highest being about 340 feet above sea level.
One range runs from Shotwick to West Kirby,
having its highest elevation at Heswall, and the
other from Spital to Bidston. From the summits
of these hills are to be had many noble sea views,
whilst in clear weather, away in the west, are to
be seen the principal peaks of the Welsh moun-
tains. So that from these high lands between
two rivers you may look over the well-cultivated
countryside, which is also pleasantly wooded ; for
the forest, which once covered parts of Wirral,
has been laid low to give air, light, and room
to the farm lands, and deer have been dis-
placed by cattle, sheep, and horses, of which
some of the best breeds are to be found in the
Hundred. That this narrow peninsula was at
10
WIRRAL AFFORESTED
one time densely wooded is testified to by the
old rhyme :
" From Blacon Point to Hilbree,
A squirrel may leap from tree to tree."
It is known that the Hundred was afforested
by Randel de Meschines, fourth Earl of Chester,
who, as a reprisal for some predatory expeditions
of the men of Wirral, ordered their farms to be
destroyed, and afforested the whole district,
appointing Alan Sylvestre to the office of bailiff
or chief ranger. The bailiwick of the forest
was afterwards held by the Stanleys of Storeton
and Hooton. " For nearly two centuries and a
half, the inhabitants of the forest, and the small
villages on its borders, continued the mere serfs
of the barons, ever ready to embark in any
expedition against their more civilised, or more
opulent, neighbours. At length the citizens of
Chester suffered so much from the proximity
of the forest, and the shelter it afforded to the
freebooters, that they complained to Edward
the Black Prince, then Earl of Chester, at whose
request his father ordered it to be disforested." l
The petition when Wirral was disforested,
the horn of the forester of Wirral, and his
warrant in 1283 for allowance to the workmen
who at that time were busily engaged in rebuild-
ing Chester Cathedral, are said to be still in
1 Mortimer's " History of the.Hundred of Wirral."
II
THE WIRRAL HORN
existence. The horn is preserved, and at one
time was in the possession of Sir John Errington,
and is nearly 17 inches long, 9^ inches in cir-
cumference at the broad end, and 2j inches at
the tip, and is decorated with a brass rim.
Traces of the ancient forests which once
covered Wirral are still to be found in the
Hundred, in which have been discovered the
remains of the Irish elk, horns of stags, and
of the Bos Taurus, a native of the old British
forests, whose descendants, the English wild
cattle, are still to be found at Chillingham in
N orthumberland.
The highways throughout the Hundred are
excellent, and the roads spread themselves out
in nearly every direction. Generally speaking,
they are of good surface and well engineered,
those main arteries leading to Chester by East-
ham, the one through Woodchurch and Gayton,
and again by Hoylake, West Kirby, and Neston,
being particularly well cared for, and of excellent
12
STATE OF THE ROADS
surface. Prior to the advent of the motor-car they
used to be considered among the standard roads
of the country, and are still very good, whilst
numerous cross roads, often with excellent sur-
faces, and free from motor traffic, are to be found
connecting eastern with western Wirral, and are
a great contrast to the roads of the earlier years,
for Bishop Cartwright makes the following entry
in his diary : —
"26^ of February 1687. — I received a letter
from Sir Charles Porter, by his servant, to bor-
row my coach from Nesson, when I heard of
his arrival, which I cheerfully granted.
" 6/?// March. — I sent my coach after dinner to
Nesson, to fetch Sir Charles Porter and his lady to
Chester, which found his children set in a stage
coach, broke in the quicksands, three miles from
Chester ; and, having brought them back, went
forward again to fetch Sir Charles and his lady
against to-morrow morning's tide."
It must be borne in mind, when considering
the vast improvements of the roads in Wirral,
that Bishop Cartwright is probably describing
some byway along the shore ; but the highways
were often nearly impassable, although numbers
of troops, as well as all sorts of merchandise, were
constantly passing along the roads to and from
Chester for embarkation for, and debarkation
13
ARCHITECTURE OF THE HUNDRED
from, Ireland and other places ; and it is only by
reading some of the old descriptions of the diffi-
culties and dangers of travel in the centuries
preceding our own, that we realise how vastly
our horizon has been enlarged, and what narrow
and circumscribed lives the rude forefathers of
these hamlets led. That some few of them
travelled as much as they did, making their
pilgrimages to what in those days must have
been very out-of-the-way places, says much for
their endurance and patience.
The architecture of the Hundred, both ancient
and modern, is not uninteresting, and the churches
of Bebington, Eastham, Shotwick, Woodchurch,
and West Kirby all possess architectural and
historical interest. The old halls have nearly
all fallen on evil days, and are now used as
farm-houses, whilst some of them have entirely
disappeared. The most interesting that remain
are Leasowe Castle, Bidston, Brimstage, Poole,
Puddington, Gayton, Irby, Thurstaston, and
Greasby.
CHAPTER II
BIRKENHEAD PRIORY
SEARCHERS after the picturesque would scarcely
go nowadays to the town of Birkenhead expecting
to find an old priory hidden away amidst its long
streets of shops and houses, and almost within
hail of its busiest thoroughfare, for commerce has
done its work, and a price has to be paid in the
matter of picturesqueness for warehouses and
busy docks. The majority of visitors to Birken-
head view the Park, the Docks, and Hamilton
Square, and then pass on into the country in
search of objects more inviting ; yet at one time
Birkenhead must have been a picturesque spot,
as its very name denotes, for local antiquaries
have long given up the theory that Birkenhead is
called so because it was the head of the river
Birken ; and Mr. Harrison, in his " Place Names
of the Liverpool District," gives the derivation of
the name — " birken-head, head or promontory of
the birches ; Old Norse, biork ; Anglo-Saxon,
birce, birch ; Old Norse, hdfud ; and Anglo-
Saxon, heafod-head." Certainly, even up to
the early years of last century, the slopes to the
15
BIRKENHEAD PRIORY
ferry were well wooded, as its name, Woodside,
denotes.
Yet hidden away and surrounded by modern
buildings, which climb nearly up to its walls, is the
interesting Priory of Birkenhead. It seems, so
much has the hand of man changed the face of
the country, a strange situation for a monastic
building, and there is a difficulty in fixing the
precise date when the Priory was founded ; but
the name of Oliver, Prior of Birkenhead, occurs in
the reign of King John. Doubtless the cathedral
builders chose a fine situation for the Priory, for at
the period of the building the land about Birken-
head was well timbered, and the situation of the
Priory was carefully selected, the building being
placed on the red sandstone, guarded on three sides
by the river Mersey. The Prior had the exclusive
right of ferry from Birkenhead to Liverpool, and
from the houses he held for the accommodation
of travellers, and from the ferry, he is said to
have derived a good revenue. " The demesne
of the ancient Priory," says Mortimer, " was on a
peninsular rock of red sandstone surrounded on
three sides by the river Mersey, and the fourth
gradually receding westward towards Claughton,
where the grange was situated. The immediate
precincts of the convent were surrounded by a
wall, of which there are now no remains. The
ruins of the building exhibit a variation from the
order of the majority of monastic houses. The
16
BIRKENHEAD PRIORY
sharp sea breezes which prevail on these coasts
two-thirds of the year seemed to have induced the
founder to place the church in a more sheltered
situation than it would have occupied in the ordi-
nary arrangement of a convent ; it was therefore
placed on the south side of the pile of buildings,
protected from the prevailing winds by the higher
ranges which formed the north and west sides."
A writer in 1831, describing the situation of
Birkenhead Ferry and the Priory, says : " A lawn
extending from the riverside to the front of an
antique mansion, situated on the most elevated
parts of the grounds, was studded with majestic
trees of some centuries' standing, and carpeted
with a turf whose verdure might vie with that of
the ' emerald isle.' Across this lawn a winding
footpath conducted the traveller to the ruins of
the ancient Priory of Birkenhead, the chapel of
which still remains entire ; and the whole demesne
was secured from the encroachment of the tide by
a natural barrier of rock overhung by copsewood.
Altogether it formed a scene of rural beauty not
often surpassed ; and peculiarly pleasing to the
eye of the returning mariner, to whom green
fields and luxuriant foliage present a delightful
contrast to the unvarying monotony of the ocean."
The ruins should certainly be visited by all in
search of the picturesque, and for those interested
in early ecclesiastical architecture they form an
interesting and instructive study. That most
17 B
TRANMERE
talented architect, Rickman, whose book on
"Gothic Architecture" is so justly admired and
eagerly sought after, speaks enthusiastically about
the Priory, and the mouldings at the entrance of
the refectory were adopted by him as a study.
It is greatly to be hoped that what remains to us
of this most interesting record of a bygone age
will be carefully preserved, and that the Corpora-
tion of Birkenhead may, by the removal of some
of the ugly modern stables which creep upon it,
improve its situation, for " architecture," John
Ruskin says, " is the work of nations."
Passing out of Birkenhead, on the New Chester
Road, where now electric tramways busily run
upon its well-trafficked surface, we come in a
little over a mile to Tranmere, where it is wise to
hurry on, for the place has small interest to the
sightseer, rows of poor shops and houses now
occupying the site where once stood an interesting
old hall, long since taken down by a speculative
builder. All trace of this hall would have passed
away had not Mr. Joseph Mayer rescued it from
oblivion by having it drawn and engraved, at the
same time printing an interesting description of
it in the "Transactions of the Lancashire and
Cheshire Historic Society" for 1851. Rewrites: —
" The Hall is situated on the brow of the hill,
overlooking, like a mother, the picturesque village
which surrounds it, and commanding a grand view
18
I
TRANMERE HALL
of the river Mersey, whose expansive waters make
a beautiful feature in the scene as they pass
by the great ' city of ships ' seen in the distance.
It is of the usual style of the period, with the
centre recessed, the wings having the customary
high-pitched gables ; the stone-work of that
character which was introduced after the Post
and Petrel, mouldings and mullions of windows,
plain fillet and ovolo, with addition of ogee for
jamb ; and with the prevailing larger and lesser
projections of offices belonging to the domestic
affairs of the family, which add to the effect of
the outline of the whole, though not remarkable
for any external display or architectural features.
"In front of the house is a large garden,
the entrance to which is from the high road,
through an ornamental doorway, over the top of
which, on the right side, are the initials G.L. and
the motto ' Labor Vincit Omnia,' with the date
1614, and on the left of it the initials A.L. This
door leads into the garden, surrounded by a high
wall on the road side, in which are evidences of
its having been prepared with loopholes, for
defence in case of an attack by an enemy from
without. Crossing the garden you arrive at the
1 big door ' of the house, approached by a flight
of steps which takes you into the great hall, more
remarkable for its heaviness than for any pictur-
esque effect or peculiarity. Crossing to a side
door you get to the staircase, which is of modern
19
DECORATED WINDOW
construction, and ascending it you come to a large
room, no doubt used on state occasions, or else
the principal private room of the lord's family.
It has a large Palladian chimney-piece, lower
column fluted and reeded, upper plain Doric,
very bold cornice and frieze on front, and the
slab is carved very deeply in writing, ' Edward
Markland.' The ceiling is divided into six square
panels by oak beams and orna-
mented with lions, fleurs de lis,
&c., in parquetry."
He then describes a curiously
decorated window, of large pro-
portions, filled with stained glass,
on which are figures. A speci-
men of one is shown here.
" The devices and mottoes of
poetry are quaint and in accord-
ance with the decorations of most of the houses
of any note belonging to our forefathers." One
of the verses ran —
" Thou pretty wench thats plucking of a flower
Keepe close the flower of thy virginity.
Beware, for oathes and promises have power
And woers many times will sweare and lye."
Mr. Mayer traced the resting-place of these
interesting specimens of stained glass, and suc-
ceeded in purchasing them, so that they are now
in the Mayer Museum at Bebington. But the
hall, like the primroses which once lined the
20
ROCK FERRY
banks hereabout, where now the gutters run, has
passed away. Change is inevitable in a progres-
sive country, but it must always be remembered
that in beauty it is possible to change a progres-
sive district for the worse. What would Bernard
de Tranemoll, its local lord in 1267, think of all
the change, could he once more revisit the
glimpses of the moon?
In another mile we reach Rock Ferry, once
one of the prettiest places on the Mersey, and a
favourite place of residence towards the middle
of last century of the merchants and ship-
owners of Liverpool. Now the town has crept
hard on to it, and one has to go farther afield
before feeling that the countryside has been
reached. But turning into Rock Park there is
still the feeling of the country. In front is the
river Mersey, and the houses are large, most of
them having well-planted gardens, in which are
some good trees ; and although many of the
houses are unoccupied, it is still a pleasant place,
and it was doubtless for its quietness, and to feel
he was in the country after his day's work was
ended, that Nathaniel Hawthorne chose it as his
place of residence, taking up his abode at No. 26
on September i, 1853. He says: "Rock Park,
as the locality is called, is private property, and
is now nearly covered with residences for profes-
sional people, merchants, and others of the upper
middling classes, the houses being mostly built, I
21
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
suppose, on speculation, and let to those who
occupy them. It is the quietest place imaginable.
On either side there is a thick shrubbery, with
glimpses through it of the ornamental portals, or
into the trim gardens with smooth-shaven lawns
of no large extent, but still affording reasonable
breathing space."
" Childhood and youth," says Emerson, " see
all the world in persons," and certainly one sees
the immediate neighbourhood of Rock Park and
the Dell in the person of Nathaniel Hawthorne,
whose writings are not only a delight to all Ameri-
cans, but to all English people too, who set a
proper value on good English and upon style.
He was somewhat of a stranger, and held
himself aloof from the residents in Rock Ferry,
being of a shy, simple, and manly character ;
but to the writer's father, Henry Young, he stood
on the most friendly terms. Mr. Young writes : —
" My first recollection of Mr. Hawthorne is
of a dark - haired, retiring, and gentlemanly-
looking man, who came to see me, and without
a word to anybody or from any one to him,
proceeded to investigate the books. In a little
while he took from the shelf an uncut copy of
' Don Quixote ' in two volumes, illustrated by
Johannot, asked me the price, paid the money,
and requested that the books be sent to 'Mr.
Hawthorne at the American Consulate.'
22
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
"Then he began coming almost daily, after
a long time growing somewhat familiar. He
would inquire much about books, in which he
took the keenest interest. The late Henry A.
Bright, of Liverpool, author of 'The English
Flower Garden,' and the intimate friend of the
late Lord Houghton (Richard Monckton Milnes),
to whom he introduced Hawthorne, was his single
warm friend and confidant in England, and they
frequently called together to examine and discuss
books. Mr. Hawthorne gave Mr. Bright the
complete manuscript of ' Transformation ' (' The
Marble Faun '), and he had it very appro-
priately bound. It remains in the possession
of the Bright family to this day.
"When the family finally left England, Mr.
and Mrs. Hawthorne,- and, I think, Miss Una
Hawthorne, called to shake hands and say good-
bye. Hawthorne's personal appearance and
demeanour very strongly reminded me of Dr.
Martineau, and Mrs. Hawthorne's sprightliness
was a delightful set-off to her husband's extreme
diffidence and quietude."
Continuing through the Park, and just before
coming abreast of the New Ferry pier, it is well
to pause and look across the river Mersey.
Opposite, the land ascends from the river to
Mossley Hill, and a good view is to be had of
both the lower and upper reaches of the Mersey.
23
PORT SUNLIGHT
" Beauty is never a delusion," Hawthorne said,
and this is the way he took his evening walk,
sometimes, it must be admitted, sighing at what
he considered some acrid quality of the English,
and wishing himself back in his native land, as
he sauntered through the Dell, and by a pleasant
way through the fields to the New Chester Road,
noting when the cuckoo called earlier than was
his wont, and listening to the larks singing —
"May 31^. — Last Sunday week," he writes,
"for the first time I have heard the note of the
cuckoo. ' Cuck-oo-cuck-oo,' it says, repeating
the word twice, not in a brilliant metallic tone,
but low and flute -like, without the excessive
sweetness of the flute."
It is a pleasant enough ramble through this
little byway, with its literary associations, but
once out on the New Chester Road, in a mile
or more, literature is forgotten, and commerce
commands attention ; for here is Port Sunlight,
its blocks of trim houses showing many interest-
ing styles of architecture, with lawns and nice
little gardens in front of each house, and, in many
cases, ivy or climbing plants clinging to the walls.
It is an agreeable change from the long rows of
ugly streets filled with houses of the brick-wall-
with-four-holes-in-it pattern, which are passed
all the way from Birkenhead to this oasis.
24
PORT SUNLIGHT
"Commerce," says Emerson, "is a game of
skill which every one cannot play, and which
few men can play well." Mr. W. H. Lever
has shown the world that commerce is a game
which he can not only play, but play well ; and,
certainly, in founding this village for the men
who help him to play the game, he has earned
not only their thanks, but the thanks of the
general community.
Mr. Lever came to Wirral from Warrington,
where he had founded a successful business, in
search of cheap land, and eventually decided to
purchase the present site of his great soap works,
with the land adjoining Bromborough Pool, for
^200 per acre. This he proceeded to drain,
and then to demolish what insanitary houses
were already there, and to lay out the space
as a village, in which his workers would find
healthful, clean, and restful homes in the near
neighbourhood of their work. Altogether he
has erected over seven hundred excellent houses,
which are built in blocks, and sometimes in
groups of two. Many architects have competed
for the work at various times, so that many styles
of architecture are in evidence, but nowhere does
taste seem to clash, and there is harmony and
not discord. Generally speaking, the houses are
built of brick and sandstone, with the upper
portion rough - cast, and perhaps about five
houses go to the acre. Some houses, occupied
25
PORT SUNLIGHT
by the clerks, foremen, or skilled mechanics,
have parlours, but in most cases they consist
of a large kitchen, scullery, pantry, and three
bedrooms, and are rented at from 55. 6d. to
6s. 6d. ; the houses containing a parlour costing
7s. 6d. per week, including taxes.
At first one is amazed to see that the occu-
pants keep their gardens so well and their lawns
so trim ; but inquiry rubs some of the romance
away, for the gardens and lawns were so
neglected that the Company took over their
management, and pays specially trained gar-
deners to look after them and keep them in
their present neat and trim condition. There
are, however, spaces set apart from the houses,
which may be hired as allotments, 10 perches
costing the cultivator 55. a year, payable in two
instalments. One man who was digging over
his allotment, with whom the writer conversed,
said he was very happy to get it, and that he
had succeeded in keeping his family in potatoes
and vegetables all through the winter until
February, when he had to purchase again until
his new crop was ready.
Pleasant roads, with trees on either side, run in
various directions, and a bridge across some low-
lying land, called Victoria Bridge, has been con-
structed ; a handsome church has been built,
together with lecture and dining halls, a library,
and museum, the former containing a reference
26
PORT SUNLIGHT
library of technical works ; a cottage hospital,
gymnasium, open-air plunge-bath, and a club.
The shops consist of a co-operative store, a
butcher's, hairdresser's, and newsagent's.
Altogether, this handsome village contains
nearly 4000 souls, living for the wages they
earn, under nearly ideal conditions as regards
sanitation and healthful surroundings, for Mr.
Lever early recognised that work was made for
man, and not man merely for work. Whether
in the end his scheme will be the success it
deserves to be, time alone can prove. Certainly
it deserves to be a success, for the founder has
set out, to use his own words, " to socialise
and christianise business relations, and get back
again into the office, factory, and workshop to
that close family brotherhood that existed in
the good old days of hand labour." It is well,
however, to remember that " the good old days
of hand labour" very often meant for the
labourer living and working through long hours
under insanitary conditions.
More recently Mr. Lever has instituted a very
ingenious system of profit-sharing, taking for
his motto, " Waste not, want not." Under his
scheme the majority of his workers, who are
also his tenants, receive, besides their wages, a
share of the annual profits of the Company.
27
CHAPTER III
BEBINGTON
A little to the north-west a good road runs up
to Bebington, and shortly before entering the
village, nearly opposite to a picturesque old cot-
tage, built in the Cheshire half-timber style, in
excellent preservation, with a thatched roof, a
draper's shop will be noticed, and on the lintel of
the window is the footprint of the Cheirotherium
Storetonense, a great extinct animal whose foot-
prints are broad like a hand, and who left the
impression of his feet on the sand before it har-
dened under great pressure into sandstone. The
stone was quarried from the neighbouring quarries
at Storeton, and, on splitting it, the impression of
the foot was distinctly visible, so the mason has
very wisely left the stone undressed, turning the
face of it bearing the impression of the foot to
the street.
It is impossible to approach Bebington without
peeping cautiously at the ancient church spire to
note the altitude of the ivy, for there is an ancient
Cheshire prophecy that the end of the world will
be at hand as soon as the ivy reaches the top of
28
BEBINGTON CHURCH
the spire ; and yet another legend states that
it was really intended to build the church at
Tranmere, to where the stone was carted, but
in the night-time it was mysteriously removed
to its present site, so it was deemed unwise to
refuse a position that had been so miraculously
selected.
Bebington Church is externally, and internally,
one of the most interesting in the Hundred of
Wirral, and in ancient days was called Whit-
church, or White Church, which is the name
mentioned by the Venerable Bede (who died
A.D. 735, and was the most eminent writer of his
day) as the usual name given by the Saxons to the
new buildings of stone which took the place of
the wooden buildings ; and that industrious writer,
John Stow, in his " Survey of London," which
appeared in 1598, says the stone walls of the
city were first invented by Bennett, a monk of
Wirral.
The church, which stands on a slight elevation
above and a little beyond the village, is dedicated
to St. Andrew, and still retains traces of its Saxon
architecture. Ormerod says : " The church of
Bebington consisted originally of a nave, south
aisle, and chancel. The two former of these
are still remaining, and are divided by a range
of Saxon arches, resting on massy cylindrical
columns. At the extremity of the south aisle is
a handsome tower surmounted by a lofty spire, of
29
BEBINGTON CHURCH
less antiquity than the part of the fabric to which
it is attached. The rest of the building has been
replaced by another chancel with side aisles of
large dimensions and extreme loftiness, finished
in the style of the splendid architecture of the
reign of Henry VII. It appears to have been
the intention of the builder to have erected a
central tower, from the formation of the four
western piers of the chancel, and, by an arrange-
ment in the roof of the side aisles, he has con-
trived to give this part, internally, the effect of
transepts. The design was interrupted before
the vaulting was finished, but the parts erected
have every appearance of having formed part
of a regular plan, which, if it had proceeded
to completion, would have presented one of the
finest specimens of ecclesiastical architecture in
Cheshire."
There is an interesting Norman font, and some
beautifully decorated windows filled with modern
stained glass, that to the memory of Sarah Rodger
being particularly notable, for it is of four lights
containing full-length figures of Sarah, Hannah,
Ruth, Esther, the Virgin Mary, Elizabeth, Mary
of Bethany, and Dorcas.
It is nearly impossible not to be reminded of
the great battle of Flodden Field when Bebington
is reached, because a branch of the famous Beb-
ington family fought in that great fight between
James IV. of Scotland and an English army,
30
FLODDEN FIELD
under the Earl of Surrey, on September 9, 1513,
and it is pleasant to remember that it was the men
of Lancashire and Cheshire who took part in the
famous charge with Sir Edward Stanley. Listen
to the old chronicler, Raphael Holinshed, the
first edition of whose chronicles was published in
1577, only sixty-four years after the battle was
fought : " Of the left-hand wing was Capteine Sir
Edward Stanleie knight, with the residue of the
power of the two counties palatine of Chester and
Lancaster ; " and then he describes the manner in
which Sir Edward Stanley led the men of Che-
shire and Lancashire in his decisive charge : " On
the left hand at the same instant Sir Edward
Stanlie, having begun to incounter with the Scots
on that side, forced them to come downe into a
more even ground : and brought to that point
with such incessant shot of arrowes as his archers
bestowed amongst them, that to avoid the danger
of that sore and sharpe storme, the Scots were
constreined to breake their arraie, and to fight
not closed togither in order of battell, but in-
sunder, one separated from another, so that their
standards began to shrinke here and there. Which
thing when Sir Edward Stanleie perceived, forth-
with bringing about three bands which he had
kept in store for such like purpose, he invaded
the open sides of his enimies by a fresh onset,
and put them in such disorder, that they were
not able anie longer to abide the violence of the
FLODDEN FIELD
Englishmen mightilie preassing upon them : so
that taking themselves to flight, and running
headlong downe the stiepe descent of the moun-
teine, they escaped to the woods and there saved
them-selves. But the Earles of Argile and
Lenox, dooing what they could to staie their
people from running awaie, were slaine in the
same place." So ended this grievous battle, in
which the Cheshire and Lancashire archers did
great execution, and it is said that there " was
not a worshipful Scots family that did not own a
grave on Brankstone moor." But the families of
Cheshire own some graves there, too, so that if
the Scots received good blows, without doubt
they paid them too, for Richard Bebington, a
younger branch of the Bebingtons of Little
Bebington, then settled at Nantwich, had six
sons and a younger brother lying stiff and stark
on that stricken field. They were presumably
fighting in company, and rest assured that, be-
fore they were all slain, a good many Scotsmen
had become for the first, and last time, landed
proprietors.
The Manor of Higher Bebington passed away
to the Minshulls, and it is to this family that
William Webb alludes when he writes : " Next
which lies Nether Bebbington and Over Beb-
bington, the precincts whereof take up in this tract
a large extent : the one a church-town, with a fair
church and goodly parsonage, the other a member
32
THE MAYER MUSEUM
of the parish, and where John Minshal Esq., of
Minshal, hath great store of fair possessions."
Despite the growth of factories in the close
neighbourhood, Bebington is still a pretty village,
and yet " hath great store of fair possessions," for
it was chosen as the residence of the late Joseph
Mayer, F.S.A., who was born at Newcastle-
under-Lyne, and, having made a fortune in
business in Liverpool, retired to this pretty
village, dying in the seventy-second year of his
age. He bequeathed his valuable collection of
porcelain to the city of Liverpool, and Pennant
House and gardens, together with his collection
of books, prints, pictures, and sculpture, to the
village of Bebington ; so that there is a small
public park, a free library, and a museum in this
little place. The museum is of no great interest,
but it contains several interesting drawings by
W. G. Herdman, Samuel Austin, R. Caddick,
W. Daniels, and G. Stubbs, R.A. Some sculp-
ture, mostly the work of G. Fontana, consists for
the greater part of busts of Mr. Mayer's personal
friends. The most interesting are Charles
Dickens, Josiah Wedgwood, and several of
Joseph Mayer, besides a bust of the eminent
antiquary, Thomas Wright, F.S.A., and a good
medallion of Charles Roach Smith. Among the
miscellaneous objects are an arm-chair, formerly
the property of Robert Burns, and three com-
partments of the window taken from Tranmere
33 c
THE MAYER MUSEUM
Old Hall, with full-length figures, one of which
is inscribed : —
" This round we laughe, we drinke, we eate,
Es tells you that we wante noe meate :
Al sorrow is in good liquor drownde
As circle soth the cupps goe round."
Charles Dickens visited Liverpool in 1869, and
in commemoration of his visit, and of the high
esteem in which Mr. Mayer held the talented
author, one of the avenues in the prettily kept
garden is called the Dickens Avenue, and a
stone is erected in it bearing the inscription,
" Dickens Avenue, April loth, 1869."
The free library is well used, and a number of
good and some out-of-the-way books may be
consulted, so that the residents of Bebington
possess a means of attaining the wisdom which
the founder considered so beneficial, for he has
affixed stone tablets outside the library on which
are deeply cut : —
" Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom, and
with all thy getting, get understanding " ;
and
" Take fast hold of instruction : let her not go, keep her,
for she is thy life."
In Bebington there is a curious charity which
occurs in few other counties. In the year 1655
Henry Goodacre left £20 to purchase cows for
the poor peasants, and in 1670 an additional
34
THE COW CHARITY
amount was left for the same charity. Mortimer
says : " The earliest accounts are lost, but from the
year 1682 a regular statement has been kept.
There were then 29 cows; in 1712, 26; in 1732,
26; in 1772, 16, which were gradually reduced
to 9, the number in 1815. The hire at first fixed
at fourpence a year was afterwards raised to 2/8,
at which it continued until 1797, when it was ad-
vanced to 3/ per year. The cows were lent to
such persons only as the rector and the church-
wardens may approve, on their finding security
among their fellow-parishioners for the good usage
of the cows, their production when required, and
the payment of the yearly rent. Every en-
couragement is given to poor persons willing to
advance any portion of the cost of a cow, which
from the book appears to have been in 1692 about
6o/ ; the purchases made in 1815 were at £9.
The horns of the cows are branded with the
initials of the rector and churchwardens, and the
parties to whom they are lent are bound to pro-
duce them on the 25th April. The rents paid
for their hire, and a few small fines from the
petty sessions, are the only sources of revenue
by which this excellent charity has been sup-
ported— a charity which, under the auspices of
the present and late rectors, has been productive
of much good to many poor labourers and widows,
who have succeeded to the small farmers to whom
the benefaction was originally confined." The
35
BROMBOROUGH POOL
form of this excellent charity has now changed,
and the poor obtain relief from the invested funds
in the ordinary way.
There is still a rural feeling in Bebington, and
many of the cottages are pretty, with nice old-
fashioned gardens ; and in the early part of the
nineteenth century the mail coaches used to
pass through Bebington village, for the mails
crossed by Tranmere Ferry, and the coaches with
their complement of passengers rattled briskly
over Dacre Hill, and through Bebington village,
to Neston and Chester. But when the New
Chester Road was made in 1844 Bebington was
left, so to speak, out in the cold, and the occupiers
of the cottages ceased to see the coaches and to
guess at the destination of the passengers. So
Bebington went peacefully to sleep, and awaiting
brisker days saw the nearer places grow in popu-
lation and importance. It has, however, awakened
again, for great works have come into the close
neighbourhood, and, turning to the south-west,
in a short walk the village of Port Sunlight is
entered.
Returning to the New Chester Road, which 'is
carried over Bromborough Pool by a stone bridge,
on the left a finger-post will be found pointing the
way to Bromborough Pool. The little road does
not look particularly inviting, and the traveller
generally hurries along to the interesting village
of Bromborough ; but instructed pedestrians turn
36
COURT HOUSE, BROMBOROUGH POOL
ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, LION AND CROWN, DRAGON
THE COURT HOUSE
down the road, and are amply rewarded, for
almost immediately they come to the Court
House, now called Court House Farm, built
about the year 1680, or perhaps a little later, by
the Hardwares, a celebrated Chester family. It
is a good specimen of the architecture of the
latter part of the seventeenth century, having
bay windows and indented and scalloped gables.
The Hardwares were leading Puritans and after-
wards Nonconformists, showing their puritanical
spirit in Chester as early as 1599, in respect
to the Guilds, or Incorporated Companies, for
the regulation of trade. These Companies from
time immemorial did homage to the Mayor on
Midsummer's Day by their governors walking
before him with banners, and in processions,
attended by various pageants and devices. But
some pieces in the show were of too strong a
character for Henry Hardware, who was Mayor
in 1599, and he "caused the giants in the Mid-
summer Show not to go : the devil in his feathers
not to ride for the butchers, but a boy as the
others, and the cuppes, and Cannes, and dragon,
and naked boy, to be put away : but caused a
man in complete armour to go before the show
in their stead." Bull-baiting caused him great
offence, and he ordered the bull-ring to be taken
up ; and two youths, Hugh Case and William
Shurlock, who were caught playing football in
St. Werburgh's Cemetery during sermon time, so
37
THE PURITANS
roused his ire that he fined them 2s. — no small
sum in those days. Eventually, owing to the
Hardwares' example, and that of other leading
Puritans, all shows and pageants were suspended,
and " the giants and hobby-horses all fell a prey to
the worms and moths." However, the pendulum
swung the other way in 1657, when it was deter-
mined to revive " the ancient and laudable custom
of the Midsummer Show, by the late obstructive
times much injured." The house is now divided
into two — the eastern end being occupied by a
farmer, and the western end by a private resi-
dent. Two of the eastern rooms are interesting,
and one contains a painting set in an overmantel.
On the western side is a meadow, on which
formerly stood the Manor House of the Abbots
of St. Werburgh, occupying a very strong, and
indeed almost impregnable position, on the neck
of land guarded on the north by Bromborough
Pool, which twists and turns like a huge serpent,
and hides itself behind the numerous soap, candle,
and oil-cake works which are situated on its banks,
for at high tide there is a good depth of water in
the Pool, and small steamers and barges are thus
enabled to discharge the raw produce and reload
the manufactured article almost at the factory
doors.
The moat which surrounds the site of the
Manor House is still traceable for nearly its
entire length, as well as some outer and inner
38
THE MANOR HOUSE
works, but not a stone of the original building
is to be found, though doubtless a little spade-
work on the meadow would reveal the original
foundations, and perhaps other matters of interest.
The moat is of considerable depth, though now
only partly filled with rain-water, and oaks and
holly bushes have sprung up on either side, so
that the original construction of the moat and
works only reveal themselves on a nearer exami-
nation, and at once show that he must have paid
good blows who took such a position, well held
by resolute men.
Ormerod writes : " The manor house of Brom-
boro' is one of those which was directed by the
charter of Earl Randle to be maintained in a
state of security and convenience for the hold-
ing of Courts appertaining to Chester Abbey; and
the strength of this situation, as well as of the
works still remaining round their other manor
house of Irby, are proof of the fears entertained
by the monks of the incursions of the Welsh-
men, at that early period. After the separation
of Eastham and Bromborough, the view of frank
pledge for both manors continued to be held
at this manor house, until they finally fell into
different hands at the dissolution."
It was to the Court House, now standing,
that the celebrated, pious, and learned minister,
Matthew Henry, author of the commentary, "An
Exposition of the Old and New Testaments,"
39
A MODEL VILLAGE
came courting, and eventually married, a daughter
of the house of Hardware. He was born at
Broad Oak farmhouse, Malpas, and in 1687 was
chosen pastor of a Nonconformist congregation
at Chester. The Hardwares of Bromborough
became extinct by the death of Henry Hard-
ware, Esq., of Liverpool, about the year 1790.
A little farther, on the south bank of the Pool,
are situated the great works of Price's Patent
Candle Company, and it is well worth while
walking through the village the Company has
erected for its workpeople. Owing to its remote-
ness from the main road the village is not greatly
visited, and Port Sunlight is looked upon as the first
and only model village in Wirral ; yet as far back
as 1853 the directors of Price's saw the wisdom
of erecting good, well-situated, and cheap houses
for those on whose good health and labour the
success of the Company relied, and 139 cottages
have been built, in addition to the houses for
members of the staff. Although not nearly so
interesting as examples of architecture as those
erected by Mr. Lever at Port Sunlight, they
are good and well built, the accommodation in
the larger cottages consisting of a sitting-room,
kitchen, scullery, and two bedrooms, rented at
between 35. 6d. and 6s. per week, including in
every case a garden, water supply, and rates. In
addition to the cottage gardens, nearly five acres
of allotment gardens are well cultivated by the
40
pq
A MODEL VILLAGE
tenants, for which they are charged 6d. per rod
per annum.
John Ruskin writes: "Your labour only may
be sold, your soul must not," and carrying out
this spirit in the treatment of their workers, a
recreation ground of six and a half acres, ideally
situated, facing the Mersey, and provided with
an excellent cricket pavilion, has been set aside
for their use, and, in addition, there is a large
enclosed crown bowling green.
Looking over the recreation ground, and facing
the Mersey, are the chapel (Church of England,
erected in 1890, and placed under the care of
the Company's private chaplain), the schools, and
village hall. There is also a library, reading-
room, Mutual Improvement and Horticultural
Societies, besides a village band. The village
also contains an Industrial and Provident Society,
which is managed by a committee of the tenants,
and to encourage thrift there is a penny savings
bank, and also a bank for the men and women
resident in the village, the Company allowing
3 per cent, interest on all deposits.
There is, too, an Isolation Hospital, the Com-
pany providing a medical officer ; but, thanks to
the healthful situation of the village, and the care
the Company has for its workers, that building is
generally empty. The population of the village
is 683.
Returning to the main road we pass some
BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH
meadows on the slopes of the Mersey which
have always been called locally, and are marked
on the Ordnance Survey, as the Wargraves. The
scholarly Gibson, editor of the Saxon Chronicle,
mentions Brunburh in Cheshire as one of the
places where the celebrated battle of Brunanburh
may have been fought, and where Athelstan—
Alfred's golden-haired grandson, upon whom the
King had girded as a child a sword, set in a
golden scabbard — overthrew, and in a great
decisive battle, in which it is computed there
were 100,000 combatants, destroyed the forces
of Anlaf and Constantine in the year 937, achiev-
ing his victory over the allied Danes, Irish, Scots,
and Welsh.
Inserted in the Saxon Chronicle is a long and
splendid war-song commemorating the event. It
says :—
" Five Kings lay
On that battle field :
In bloom of youth
Pierced through with swords :
So also seven
Of Anlaf s Earls."
Gibson states " that in Cheshire there is a
place called Brunburh, and certainly old maps
of Cheshire spell Bromborough Brunburh," and
there is no other place whose name and situation
more closely correspond to the name and descrip-
tion in the Saxon Chronicle.
42
BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH
However, Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Hardwick, and
some other weighty writers believe, and give
some good reasons for believing, that the battle
was fought in the country lying between the
Ribble and the Mersey.
Yet, again, it is argued that the Saxon Chronicle
distinctly says : —
" They won a lasting glory,
With the edges of their swords
By slaughter in battle,
Near Brunanburh,"
and that there was but one Brunanburh at the
time the battle was fought, just as there is only
one Bromborough to-day ; that when the Danish
King Anlaf set sail from Dublin with his allies,
the King of the Scots and the Welsh Chiefs,
what could be more natural than that they should
make for the Mersey, which, like the Dee, was a
well-known and favourite place for embarking for
Ireland, and where there was already in Wirral
a Norse population on whom they might rely for
friendly support.
But wherever the Battle of Brunanburh l was
fought, tradition alleges that a great battle was
fought on the fields named the Wargraves, and
many Wirral men look over the fields towards
the Mersey in the evenings, and in their mind's
1 Skene, in his " Celtic Scotland," says : " The site of the great
battle is one of the problems in English history which has not yet
been solved," but he favours the neighbourhood of Aldborough in
Yorkshire.
43
BROMBOROUGH VILLAGE
eye behold the Danes making their last stand on
the Wargraves, and see the Saxons in stern
array fiercely pressing their enemies on either
hand — the Danish rearguard holding a strong
position, whilst the remnant of an army escaped
on board their ships lying in Bromborough Pool.
A little farther on is Bromborough village,
which Ormerod, writing early in the nineteenth
century, describes as " an antient respectable
village chiefly built with red sandstone and situ-
ated near the estuary at the distance of 1 1 miles
from Chester." It is a pretty village, and the
cross standing in its square at once commands
attention, for the base and steps are ancient, but
a new shaft and head have been added more
recently. Opposite is the interesting house now
called Manor Farm, bearing the date of 1676, at
which date the house was partly rebuilt, and over
a disused doorway are the arms and supporters
of Charles the First, with the lilies of France
quartered. Inside is some interesting oak panell-
ing capped by some carved busts of ladies in the
costume of the period of Henry VIII. ; and up-
stairs there is another interesting room, bearing
over the fireplace three curious panels carved in red
sandstone, representing the elephant and castle,
the lion and crown, and the dragon and spear.
Close by is the church, which was erected in
1864 and completed on the dedication of the
tower and bells, on October 28, 1880. It has
44
o
-
0
o
M
O
•
~
o
a
pq
BROMBOROUGH CHURCH
some good modern stained glass, and the east
window, containing a telling representation of the
Crucifixion, is particularly noticeable. An ancient
Anglo-Saxon church formerly existed here, and
Ormerod saw it, and fortunately describes it,
figuring the doorway of the chancel within a
semicircular arch. He considered the greater part
of the fabric to be nearly coeval with the Con-
quest, and thought some parts of it might be
fragments of the Saxon monastery — perhaps that
founded by Elfleda, the Lady of Mercia, who
founded a monastic house in Bromborough about
the year 912.
In 1828 this interesting piece of architecture
was destroyed to make room for a new church,
but this again became too small for the increasing
population, and the present church was erected
on land given by C. K. Mainwaring, Esq. Some
of the original carved stones of the ancient church
were discovered in taking down the church that
this church replaced, and now form an inartistic
pile in the rectory garden. Since writing these
lines the stones have again been examined with
the object of setting up the cross, portions of
which are among the fragments, but it has been
found to be too fragmentary, and the stones are
to be moved to the shelter of the church, where
they will meet the eye of visitors.
Bromborough Hall is a large house standing
back from the main road, surrounded by trim
45
BROMBOROUGH HALL
gardens, and sheltered by well-grown trees. The
grounds slope to the river Mersey, over which
they command some delightful prospects ; but the
building has been much altered by successive
owners, and shows many styles of architecture.
It is at present the seat of Sir William Forwood.
Bromborough has become in recent years a
favourite place of residence for merchants en-
gaged in business in Liverpool, and many large
new houses have been built there. The popula-
tion in 1831 was 313, and to-day it numbers 2000,
or slightly over ; and land has greatly enhanced
in value, over ^300 per acre having been recently
asked for some favourably situated building land.
46
CHAPTER IV
EASTHAM
SOON after passing Bromborough Hall a stile
path on the left leads over some well-farmed
fields, pleasantly timbered, and delightful in
spring when the sap is rising and the buds are
showing and ready to burst into leaf in the morn-
ing's sunshine ; or in autumn when the sad time
of the year is approaching, and the autumnal
tints are gilded by the evening sun. It is but a
short walk across these fields, and the Eastham
Wood is entered, one of the few natural woods
remaining in Wirral open to the public to ramble
in ; and passing between the trees the pedes-
trian soon issues at the old Carlett, or Eastham
Ferry, which was in the early coaching days the
favourite route between Chester and Liverpool.
Indeed, in those days Eastham inns must have
been busy places, for as many as twenty coaches
well filled with passengers passed through the
village daily. After alighting from the coaches
the serious part of the journey to Liverpool com-
menced, for when the stormy and wintry winds
blew, the sailing boats often took half a day to
47
CARLETT PARK
reach the Port of Liverpool, especially when the
swiftly flowing incoming tide was against them.
Close to the ferry are the entrance locks to the
Manchester Ship Canal, the largest of the three
being 600 feet in length by 80 feet in width.
Passing by Carlett Park — thej handsome man-
sion built by the late John Torr, Esq. (sometime
Member of Parliament for Liverpool), and now
occupied by his son, the Rev. W. E. Torr, Vicar
of Eastham — some good timber will be observed
in the park, which on one side touches the fringe
of the Eastham Woods, which shelter it on the
north. Eastham village is then entered. The
interesting church, and the God's acre which
surrounds it, at once invite an intimate attention,
for time has softened the colouring of the red
sandstone, and it contrasts strikingly with the
bright greens and the pretty flowers which adorn
the graves of the dear departed —
" Your voiceless lips, O flowers, are living preachers,
Each cup a pulpit, and each leaf a book."
The Manor of Eastham was given by Randal de
Gernons, Earl of Chester, to the Convent of St.
Werburgh, to make amends for some evil he had
done it ; and, in making the gift, he commanded
all his subjects upon their allegiance that this his
donation, given for his health and absolution,
should be free and absolute, adding that if any of
them should diminish it in anything, that God
48
FAITHFUL SERVANTS
would lessen him, so lessened destroy him, and,
so destroyed, condemn him unto the Devil.
Entering beneath the fine lich-gate — pre-
sented by the late E. H. Harrison, Esq., who
erected a fine house at Plymyard, built in the
Elizabethan style — an ancient yew-tree will be
noticed, which has looked on many centuries and
bids fair to look on many more, although Father
Time has nearly eaten its heart away, and the
sap at each returning spring must flow with diffi-
culty. Eastward of the church are two interesting
tombstones — one erected to the memory of John
Linford, a servant in the Stanley family for
upwards of eighty years, and who died aged
ninety-three years ; the other to the memory
of Margaret Turnbull, a servant in the Stanley
family for upwards of sixty years, and who died
aged eighty-one years. The record speaks well
for both masters and servants.
The church is dedicated to St. Mary and was
built about the year 1 1 50. The handsome tower
is ancient, the church having been restored in
excellent taste and the windows filled with stained
glass, some by Kemp. The nave and two side
aisles are interesting, the west window being par-
ticularly beautiful. The north aisle terminates
in a chancel, where rest the altar tombs of the
Stanleys of Hooton.
On the top of the first is carved very deeply a
large cross, and "William Standley of Houton
49 D
THE STANLEY MONUMENTS
was buried heare the fourth of January the yeare
of our Lord God 1612. Death restes in the
ende. His wife was Anne Herbert, and left by
her livinge one son, and six doughters. Death
. . . Miseries."
The lid of the other altar tomb is supported by
six pillars, and is inscribed : " Here lyeth the
body of the honourable Charlotte lady Stanley,
wife to sir William Stanley, of Hooton, bart.,
and daughter to the right honourable Richard
lord Viscount Molyneux, who deceased the 3ist
day of July 1662. Requiescat in pace." And
on a brass plate on the same tomb : " Here lyeth
the body of sir Rowland Stanley of Hooton, knt.,
who deceased the 5th day of April a° 1613, and
was here buried the 23d day of the same moneth
in the yeare of his age 96."
On the organ-case in the south aisle are three
ancient shields, carved in wood, with the arms
of Poole, Buerton, and Capenhurst. The font
is said to be Saxon or early Norman, and is of
high interest.
Eastham is as pretty a village as is to be found
in Cheshire, and close beside the church is an
interesting old farm-house, a good specimen of
the Cheshire half-timbered style, and a little
further on there is a house inscribed " I. D.I. M.I.
1699," but the tablet was only found in the garden
belonging to the house some few years ago, and
has been but recently placed in its present posi-
50
EASTHAM VILLAGE
tion. The view of the church tower from a little
distance on the road to Willaston, with jackdaws
encircling it, and swallows flitting on restless
wings on a quiet summer evening, is a picture
which remains in the memory, for its character
is truly English.
In the centre of the village is a cross erected
to the memory of the late J. A. Tobin, Esq., long
resident in Eastham, and well remembered both
in Cheshire and Liverpool as an excellent plat-
form speaker. It is inscribed with the tenets he
loved so well : " Fear God," " Honour the King,"
" Work while it is yet day," and is dated 1891.
The Stanley Arms has been entirely rebuilt
since Nathaniel Hawthorne visited it in 1854.
He was particularly struck with the English
character of Eastham village, and writes : " After
passing through the churchyard, we saw the
village inn on the other side. The doors were
fastened, but a girl peeped out of the window at
us and let us in, ushering us into a very neat
parlour. There was a cheerful fire in the grate,
a straw carpet on the floor, a mahogany side-
board, and a mahogany table in the middle of
the room ; and on the walls the portraits of mine
host (no doubt) and of his wife and daughters—
a very nice parlour, and looking like what I might
have found in a country tavern at home, only this
was an ancient house, and there is nothing at
home like the glimpse from the window of the
HOOTON HALL
church and its red ivy-grown tower. I ordered
some lunch, being waited on by the girl, who was
neat, intelligent, and comely, and more respectful
than a New England maid."
Altogether Eastham is a place to linger in and
revisit from time to time. Other countries have
their attractions without doubt, and
" Unto each his mother-beach, bloom and bird and land ; "
but as an example of a quiet typical English village,
Eastham will always dwell in the memory.
The dusty road sweeps through Eastham to
Chester, but leaving by the road to the south-
east, marked " Ellesmere Port," the motors are
quickly out of sight and mind ; for it is now
possible to rest on the field gateways to look over
the ever-changing scene, and proceeding in the
leisurely fashion of the understanding pedestrian,
in a little over a pleasant mile — where many a
pause is necessary to listen to the birds, or note
the numerous oak-trees which grow in goodly
numbers and in shapely size in this neighbour-
hood— Hooton Hall, the ancient dwelling-place
of the Stanleys for close on five hundred years,
is reached.
William Webb, M. A., writing about 1621, says :
" We come next to Hooton, a goodly ancient
manor and fair park, which, ever since the reign
of King Richard the Second, hath been the seat
of the Stanleys of Hooton, gentlemen of great
52
THE STANLEYS OF HOOTON
dignity and worth, deriving their pedigree from
Alan Silvester, upon whom Ranulph the first
[fourth ?] Earl of Chester bestowed the bailiwick
of the forest of Werral, and delivered unto him a
horn, to be a token of his gift ; from whence we
gather, that Werral was holden to be a place of
no mean account in those times ; where have con-
tinued the same Stanleys in direct succession, and
was lately possessed by a very worthy and noble-
minded Knight, Sir Rowland Stanley, who lived
there to the age (I have heard) of near one
hundred years, and lived to be the oldest Knight
in this land ; which I note the rather to approve
the healthfulness of the place, and where his
fourth generation, his son's son's son was at the
time of his decease. Near unto which stands
Eastham, the parish church and lordship."
The Stanleys grew into an important family
by their alliances with the leading families
of Lancashire and Cheshire. Hooton was, in
the. reign of Richard I., in the possession of
an ancient family named Hotone, and from them
passed to Randle Walensis. In 1346 the right
of the bailiwick of the Forest of Wirral and the
Manor of Storeton was proved by Sir William
Stanley, and upon the disafforestation of Wirral in
1 360 a grant of 20 marks per annum was made
to his son as a compensation for loss of fees and
perquisites attached to that ancient office. This
Sir William had two sons, the younger, Sir John
S3
EDWARD STANLEY
Stanley, married Isabella, sole heiress of Sir
Thomas Lathom, Knight, and upon his death
settled at Lathom, in Lancashire, and became
founder of the noble and distinguished house
of Derby.
The elder son married Margery, only daughter
of William de Hoton, who brought to him the
estates of her ancient family. The Stanleys were
able men, and greatly respected. Indeed, Sir
Rowland Stanley, who died in 1613, was beloved
by the whole countryside, and lived to be the
oldest knight in England, for he did not die until
April 5, 1613, having lived to the great age of
ninety-six years, and to see his son's son's son
settled at Hooton.
Two of his sons are interesting — one on account
of his great bravery, and the other on account of
his treachery. The younger, Edward Stanley (a
natural son), having proceeded to the wars in the
Low Countries — for in those days natural sons got
more kicks than halfpence — was a very gallant
lad, and the Rev. F. Sanders, M.A., the learned
Vicar of Hoylake, has recently drawn attention to
the fact that one of his deeds of valour has been
chronicled in the glowing pages of John Lothrop
Motley, the American historian, in his famous book
entitled a "History of the United Netherlands."
He writes : —
" The great fortress which commanded the
Velawe, and which was strong enough to have
54
EDWARD STANLEY
resisted Count Hohenlo on a former occasion for
nearly a year, was the scene of much hard fight-
ing. It was gained at last by the signal valour
of Edward Stanley, lieutenant to Sir William.
That officer, at the commencement of an assault
upon a not very practicable breach, sprang at the
long pike of a Spanish soldier who was endea-
vouring to thrust him from the wall, and seized
it with both hands. The Spaniard struggled to
maintain his hold of the weapon, Stanley to wrest
it from his grasp. A dozen other soldiers broke
their pikes upon his cuirass, or shot at him with
their muskets. Conspicuous by his dress, being
all in yellow but his corslet, he was in full sight
of Leicester and of five thousand men. The
earth was so shifty and sandy that the soldiers
who were to follow him were not able to climb
the wall. Still Stanley grasped his adversary's
pike, but, suddenly changing his plan, he allowed
the Spaniard to lift him from the ground. Then,
assisting himself with his feet against the wall,
he, much to the astonishment of the spectators,
scrambled quite over the parapet and dashed
sword in hand amongst the defenders of the fort.
Had he been endowed with a hundred lives it
seemed impossible for him to escape death. But
his followers, stimulated by his example, made
ladders for themselves of each other's shoulders,
scrambled at last with great exertions over the
broken wall, overpowered the garrison, and made
55
SIR WILLIAM STANLEY
themselves masters of the sconce. Leicester,
transported with enthusiasm for this noble deed
of daring, knighted Edward Stanley upon the
spot, besides presenting him next day with ^40
in gold, and an annuity of 100 marks sterling for
life. ' Since I was born, I did never see any
man behave himself as he did,' said the Earl.
' I shall never forget it, if I live a thousand years,
and he shall have a part of my living for it as
long as I live.' '
It makes the blood course quickly in the veins,
and one's breath to come and go as the account
of the gallant action of this Wirral gentleman is
read. It was a brave deed that did not pass
unrequited, and it is nearly impossible to look on
the park, in which this brave soldier must have
ridden as a boy, without recalling his gallant
bearing, and murmuring, " It must have been a
noble mother that bore so brave a son."
But, alas! as we sit beneath the oak-trees
there come to mind the shame and misdeeds
of the elder son, who, too, was a distinguished
soldier. Leicester appointed Sir William Stanley
Governor of Deventer, placing under his com-
mand more than a thousand troops. Leicester
had seen a good deal of him, and trusted him
implicitly, but his trust was betrayed shame-
fully, for within less than a month after his
appointment he entered into negotiations to
deliver the fortress into the hands of the
56
THE OLD HALL
Spaniards, and enlisted in the service of the
King of Spain. The great Spanish Armada set
sail for England, and was happily defeated by the
gallant Drake and his comrades, and, on learning
of the defeat, Sir William retired into Spain and
died abroad. His father, Sir Rowland Stanley,
to show his detestation and abhorrence of his
son's treacherous conduct, was particularly active
against Spain, and when the news came of the
Spanish Armada he contributed a hundred pounds
to a fund for taking measures to repel it.
The old hall in which the Stanleys dwelt was
a very interesting building, and a picture of it is
reproduced here. Ormerod had it copied from
the original painting in the possession of Sir T.
S. M. Stanley, Bart., and describes it as " A very
large quadrangular timber building, one of the
rooms of which was decorated with rude paint-
ings of the Earls of Chester executed on the
wainscot. One side was occupied by a strong
tower, embattled and machicolated, from which
rose a slender turret of extraordinary height. It
was erected by Sir William Stanley, who had for
this purpose a licence enrolled in the exchequer
of Chester, and dated 10 Aug. [3 not] 2 Henry
VII." It was taken down in 1778, and the pre-
sent mansion built from a design of Samuel
Wyatt, from stone dug from Storeton quarry,
stands within a park of one thousand acres.
At last there came a Sir William Stanley, who
57
THE LAST OF THE STANLEYS
entered into possession of the splendid and care-
fully kept estates of his ancestors, and a few short
years of extravagant living led to the sale of
Hooton. He entertained Napoleon III., who
did not forget his kindnesses when misfortunes
pressed heavily upon Sir William, who was re-
duced to sad circumstances by his liberality and
gambling proclivities. An old rabbit-catcher, who
dwelt on the estate many years ago, said that he
had seen twelve coaches-and-four on a single day
pass out of the Hooton Park gates taking Sir
William's guests to the Chester races.
So at last the dwelling-place of the Stanleys,
with all their fair demesne, came into the market
and passed away with the Wirral Stanleys for
ever.
" If we wish to do good to men, we must pity
and not despise them," says Amiel, and whenever
the writer of these lines looks over the park, and
sees now a former dwelling of a historic family
turned into a club, he exclaims, Oh ! the pity of
it, the pity of it.
The Stanley estates were purchased by Richard
Christopher Naylor, a successful banker, and for-
merly a partner in the famous banking house of
Leyland & Bullins, of King Street, Liverpool,
who has long ceased to dwell there, although he
made considerable additions to the original build-
ing. The park contains some good timber, and
in the spring-time the large snowdrops peep
58
HOOTON HALL — PRESENT DAY
POOLE HALL, SOUTH FRONT
VIEWS FROM THE HALL
through every glade, and there is a beautiful
cedar- tree on the lawn at the west front, which is
worthy of notice.
The hall commands excellent views over the
Mersey, but the Manchester Ship Canal, which
passes through the property where it slopes to
the Mersey, has destroyed much of its rurality,
and has been one of the means of destroying
the ancient heronry which existed in the Booston
woods ; a few birds only occasionally visit their
former breeding-place for nesting.
There is an annual race-meeting held within
the park, at which there is always a large gather-
ing of the Cheshire County families, and many of
their sons race and ride their own horses. It is
a pleasure to note how boldly and well they ride,
and there are few better horsemen to be found in
England than the Wirral gentlemen can produce.
59
CHAPTER V
POOLE HALL
LEAVING Hooton and passing along the road
which leads to Ellesmere, in about a mile a rough
farm-road will be found running to the east ; and,
turning gladly from the hard high road, in a short
quarter of a mile Poole Hall will be seen, and its
position and architecture immediately arrest atten-
tion and call a halt, for it stands on the banks of
the Mersey entirely alone. Its sixteenth-century
builder had an eye for a situation, placing his
house looking to the south-east and with a long
south prospect, taking care to make his garden
on the south side.
Poole Hall is a very fine specimen of Tudor
architecture, and is one of the most important
ancient buildings in Cheshire ; for although it has
been long used as a farm-house, it has had the
good fortune to be occupied by tenants who have,
with a few exceptions, kept it well, and been
interested in its antiquity and historical associa-
tion. It was built by Thomas Poole, who lived
in the reign of King Henry VIII., and oc-
cupied many places of trust and importance in
60
THE KITCHEN
Wirral, for he was Sheriff of Cheshire and
seneschal of Birkenhead Priory at its dissolution.
In the garden, partly covered with ivy, is a stone
which at one time stood over the chimney-piece
in the hall, on which is deeply cut " J.P. and K.P.,
1574," showing that the house was altered, or
perhaps partly rebuilt, at this date.
It is built of grey stone, timber, and plaster,
with an octagonal turret at either end, the south
front being lighted by large, heavily mullioned
windows which look on to the old-fashioned
garden, in which are good fruit-trees and an in-
teresting sun-dial. A door on the south side
leads directly into the dining-hall, which is finely
panelled with oak. The principal entrance is on
the east side, and under the embattled porch
swings a great oak door, protected and strength-
ened with iron.
The writer was fortunate in finding a kindly
cicerone in the person of Mr. Samuel Jones, the
present occupier, and he will not readily forget
the large and splendid kitchen in which he rested,
with its oak beams, from which swung many
flitches of home-cured bacon, nor his chat with
his host by the fireside on a peevish April after-
noon. A great ingle-nook formerly occupied one
side, but it has given place to more modern and
convenient arrangements, and a large up-to-date
cooking range now partly fills it.
The stairs are formed of huge blocks of solid
61
THE CLOCK-TOWER
oak, and a room upstairs is, like the dining-room,
panelled throughout with oak in the Tudor style,
whilst on the top storey, in the south-east turret,
is a private chapel, in which one or two of the
altar rails still exist. The view from the turret
window over and up the Mersey, and on to the
Overton Hills, is as good a prospect as is to
be had in Wirral, and on a bright sunny day in
spring one not readily forgotten.
In the clock-tower is the quaint clock, the face
of which is on the east side of the house, and on
the works is engraved " John Seddon, Frodsham,
1703." It had not worked for fifty years, but
recently Mr. Samuel Jones met with a clock-
maker who agreed to undertake its repair, a con-
tract being made on the no-cure-no-pay system,
with the result that the clock was duly set going,
and now keeps excellent time. Adjoining the
chapel is a little dark cell, and in another room,
beneath the floor, is a secret hiding-place.
In the garden in front of the house stands a
large and ancient mulberry-tree, whose branches
spread themselves out close to the ground in
many directions, quite covering and shading from
the sun a pleasant garden-seat, and forming a
natural arbour. Seated beneath the shade, and
quite close to the principal entrance, it is possible
to allow the fancy to roam and picture some of
the members of this ancient family — who in the
reign of Edward VI. held land in thirteen town-
62
RANDALL DE PULL
ships in Wirral, besides some in Broxton — ride
forth. Great, strenuous men they were, and not
afraid to pay good blows. Ah! here comes the
great Randall de Pull, who fought in the van of
the English army under the command of the
Black Prince, and who, under the immediate
command of the Lord Audley at the battle of
Poictiers, saw the great French army advance,
and then fall back before the fierce hail of arrows
which poured on them from the hedgerows which
the Prince had lined with his bowmen ; and on
that stricken field doubtless witnessed the French
King taken, fighting desperately, and his army,
utterly broken, flying back to the gates of Poic-
tiers, leaving 8000 of their number dead on
the field.
Here comes Sir John hurrying away, in 1407,
1 ' to take into the Port of Chester such vessels
and equipment as should be necessary to the said
Sir John proceeding to sea for warlike purposes,
according to the Prince's command " ; or setting
out to collect sixty archers to take into Ireland :
for Wirral archers were famous, and none could
escape training. There is a statute, 33 Henry
VIII., which opens with a complaint of the decay
of archery, and ordains that all men under the
age of sixty, except spiritual men, justices, &c.,
shall use shooting with the long bow, and shall
have bow and arrows ready continually in their
house ; every person having a man child in his
63
WILLIAM THE RAKE
house shall provide a bow and two shafts for
every such man child being seven years and
upwards till of the age of thirteen, in order to
promote shooting ; and if the young men be
servants the expense of such articles shall be
abated from their wages.
Following him comes swaggering forth his
kinsman, William the Rake, who, in " 1436, went
to Bewsey, near Warrington, with a great many
servants, and forcibly carried off the Lady Isabel,
widow of Sir John Boteler, late constable of
Liverpool Castle, and most horribly ravished the
said widow, carrying her into the most desolate
parts of Wales."
Then the great Civil War bursts forth, and there
are troublous times in store for the Pooles, who
were staunch Cavaliers and good Catholics. Here
comes limping James Poole to take the air, slowly
dying from wounds received at the siege of
Chester ; and then on a sudden one hears the
tramp and shouts of the Parliamentary forces
under Sir William Moreton, as they take and
pillage Poole Hall.
The hall was formerly surrounded by a moat,
of which no traces now remain.
In 1844 a quantity of arms, swords, and pistols
were dug up in grounds adjacent to the hall,
where they were probably buried when it was
taken by Sir William Moreton and his Parlia-
mentary forces.
64
OVERPOOL
The view from the east porch, over the upper
reaches of the Mersey, is partly obscured by the
huge Mount Manistay, a great hill thrown up
when the ship canal was excavated. It is now
grassed over, and occasionally partridges are shot
on its slopes.
The baronetcy remained in the family until the
death of the Rev. Sir Henry Poole in 1821, and
the farm of 350 acres now forms part of the
Hooton Hall estate, having passed by purchase
to the late Richard C. Naylor, Esq.
Returning to the main road, in less than a mile
is Overpool, which must have been a poor place
in 1847, for Mortimer describes it in uncompli-
mentary terms, saying, "The village, if such it
may be called, consists of a few poor huts and
small farm-houses situated near the shore of the
Mersey, on an almost impassable cross-road from
Eastham." But the scene has changed in recent
years, and the houses have been mostly rebuilt,
so that the village has an air of decent comfort,
and the road is quite hard and good. At the
entrance to the village a tiny Wesleyan chapel
will be noticed on the left, and by it a finger-
post marking a path over the fields to Ellesmere.
It is always wise to walk away from the main
roads if time is not an object, and the traveller is
in search of scenery. In this case he is rewarded
by saving time and getting excellent scenery, for
on passing two tumble-down and happily unin-
65 E
ELLESMERE PORT
habited cottages — a specimen, no doubt, of what
the village consisted when Mortimer saw it in
1847 — the fields are entered, and it is necessary to
pause often for the view. To the north-east stands
Poole Hall in its solitary situation, and in front is
the Mersey, with the prettily wooded shore on
the Lancashire side. In a little under a mile the
busy little port of Ellesmere is reached, with its
huge elevator, corn mills, and other manufactories,
and passing quickly through the town by Bridge
Street to Pontoon, a boat will be found waiting
(if the precaution has been taken to send a post-
card a few days in advance to Thomas Ryder,
Stanlaw Point,1 near Ellesmere Port) for Stanlaw
Point, on which is situated the ruins of the ancient
abbey, is now an island, cut off from the mainland
by the Manchester Ship Canal, which has to be
crossed. No boats are kept at Ellesmere for the
purpose, and the writer of these lines, on his first
visit, had to steal a boat which some sailors had
left at Pontoon whilst they made purchases in
the town, and bribed two stalwart youths to enter
the conspiracy with him. Luckily, the boat was
safely moored again before the sailors returned.
Landing on the island, the farm and ruins of
the abbey are in front, and the prospect is a
pleasing one, showing how greatly for the better
the hand of man has changed the scene since
Ormerod saw it and described it. "It is," he
1 Stanlaw, now marked on Ordnance Survey Stanlow.
66
STANLAW POINT
says, "difficult to select a scene of more comfort-
less desolation than this cheerless marsh barely
fenced from the waters by embankments on the
north, shut out by naked knolls from the fair
country which spreads along the feet of the forest
hills on the south-east, and approached by one
miserable trackway of mud, whilst every road
that leads to the haunts of men seems to diverge
its course as it approaches Stanlaw." Nothing
like this scene will be noticed now, for though
the Point itself is bleak and dreary enough, on
nearly every side the prospect is a pleasing one ;
the great fens and marshes in the neighbourhood
of I nee, at one time stretching for many weary
miles, have been drained, are well farmed, and
dotted with prosperous-looking homesteads, whilst
in the foreground is Ince Hall. The Mersey
here takes a wide sweep to the south-west, so
that at high tide the river Gowy seems to fall
into a beautiful lake, and the view over to the
prettily wooded shores on the Lancashire side at
Speke and Hale forms a pleasing prospect ; to
the north-west is the Mount Manistay, happily
now nearly all green with vegetation. When the
tide is out the mud flats are tenanted by numerous
sheldrakes — or, as the Wirral people call them,
burrow-ducks, on account of their nesting in
the rabbit burrows — whilst wild geese and other
water-fowl are scattered over the mud flats, and in
the winter the place is visited by numerous swans.
67
STANLAW ABBEY
There is a small rabbit-warren on the island, and
numerous well-bred goats pick up a hard living.
The rock on which the abbey was situated is of
red sandstone, and the position is a bleak one —
blown on by every wind of heaven ; and before
the surrounding country was fenced and drained
it is impossible to imagine a more uninviting situa-
tion, for the rocky knoll was surrounded on three
sides by great gloomy marshes and sour bad
lands, over which the traveller must have trod a
precarious path, with many a will-o'-the-wisp to
dog and betray his footsteps, for the marsh was
obscured by tall reeds, valuable for thatching ; and
the founder of the abbey in the charter directed
that the reeds were not to be gathered without
the express permission of the convent.
It was on this bleak spot, where the river
Gowy fell into the Mersey after dragging itself
slowly and painfully through the dreary marshes,
that John de Lacy, Constable of Chester, founded
this abbey of Cistercian monks in the year 1178,
shortly before he set out for a crusade in the
Holy Land, never, alas! to return. The Cister-
cian monks were a very austere order, choosing
lonely situations, difficult of access, and far away
from the busy haunts of men. Their peculiar
system was the work of Stephen Harding, an
Englishman, and although the first abbey was
founded by William Gifford, bishop of Win-
chester, at Waverley, A.D. 1129, yet so much did
68
THE CISTERCIANS
the monks commend themselves to the people of
England that rich endowments flowed in upon
them, so that their establishments in England in
the reign of Henry VIII. numbered seventy-
five. They were great agriculturists and pro-
moters of Gothic architecture, numbering among
their beautiful buildings such noble monuments
to their skill as the Abbeys of Woburn, Tintern,
Furness, and Fountains.
So here the good Cistercians dwelt, toiling for
the good of men's souls, and endeavouring to
leave the world a little better than they found
it. Their isolation was complete, and the busy
strife of those noisy days of turmoil and war
passed by them unheard and unheeded ; but the
situation was an ill-chosen one, for the place was
liable to floods when the Gowy came tumbling
down in fury, and the Mersey rose before the
gathering storms. A great eruption of the sea
in 1279 is stated by the Annals of St. Werburgh
to have done immense damage at Stanlaw ; and
alas! troubles come not singly but in battalions,
for a belching gale damaged the great and beauti-
ful tower of their church, so that it fell, carrying
with it part of the surrounding masonry, and
almost ruining the abbey as a place of abode.
Yet the monks clung tenaciously to the hallowed
spot, to which came pious pilgrims, for it held
the bones of the illustrious dead, the great
Earls of Lincoln and the Constables of Chester
69
THE GREAT FIRE
lying buried therein in a vault cut out of the solid
rock.
In another two years the surrounding marshes
were lighted by a great fire, for what remained
of the abbey was ablaze, and the place was
reduced in a great conflagration. Still the monks
clung to the little that remained of their beauti-
ful building ; but ere long another inundation
occurred, and the inmates were in a piteous
plight, for the water rose three feet high in the
offices of the monastery, so that at last the monks
of Stanlaw requested leave of Pope Nicholas
IV. to migrate to Whalley, where they had re-
ceived rich grants of land from the De Lacys,
and at last their request was granted on their
increasing their number by twenty.
" Considerable difficulty," Mortimer says,
" attended their removal, which was opposed by
parties who pleaded a prior grant of Whalley,
and were only induced to relinquish their claim
upon the promise of several large sums of money.
Even their own patron opposed their movements.
He resumed possession of the church he had
given them, and retained it until they assigned
to him their chapel at Clitheroe, then valued
at one hundred marks. At length, in 1294, tne
separation finally took place. Five of the monks
remained at Stanlaw, one at the Grange of
Stanney, and one was transferred to finish his
studies at Oxford, where he attained a doctor's
70
ANCIENT DOORWAY, STANHW ABBEY
SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGE, STANLAW ABBEY
ROBERT HAUWORTHE
degree. The twenty-five that removed to
Whalley obtained entrance into the church,
' having read their forced revocation before
the doors, the people in crowds invoking the
judgements of Heaven upon the simoniacs,' by
whom they had been so long excluded."
Robert Hauworthe, who had been Abbot for
twenty-four years, and had learned to look with
affectionate eyes on the great marsh lands, with
its reed gatherers, decided to remain at Stanlaw
with four of his monks, much to the relief of the
dwellers on the country-side, for the removal of
the monks to Whalley was bitterly felt, and
great efforts were made to rekindle the en-
thusiasm of the people for the abbey, an indul-
gence of forty days being given to all who
aided it by contributions, and another of a less
number of days, "to all who should either go
to Stanlaw to pray for the souls of the Earls
of Lincoln, and the Constables of Chester there
buried." Its distresses even excited commi-
seration on the Continent. The Archbishop of
Montroyal and the Bishop of Versailles granted
similar indulgences to all who would undertake
a pilgrimage to pray for the soul of Edmond
De Lacy.
So the monks remained faithful to their be-
loved Stanlaw, which became a cell under
Whalley until the dissolution, when it passed
into the possession of that great trafficker in
ARCHITECTURE OF STANLAW ABBEY
lands, Sir Richard Cotton, and was sold by him
to Sir John Poole of Poole Hall.
But little of the former splendour of Stanlaw
Abbey remains ; scattered about are various
stones, which have been carefully carved, and
four beautiful old circular columns now support
the roof of a cow-house. i One of the walls, in
which is an ancient doorway, is still standing,
and in the centre of the farm-yard is a subter-
ranean passage, hewn out of the solid red sand-
stone, passing under the buildings and emerging
over 45 yards, close to where the Gowy falls into
the Mersey. Another passage, which, however,
the present writer did not succeed in finding,
is said by Ormerod to have led to a small cir-
cular apartment, hewn also out of the solid rock,
which was not discovered until a furious storm
burst in upon it, and laid bare the chamber
containing numerous bones and several leaden
coffins. At the present day bones are still
found when gardening operations are in pro-
gress, showing that Stanlaw was a favourite
place of burial, and that a considerable God's
acre was attached to the abbey.
From what remains, the style of architecture
is judged to be extremely fine Early English,
and although of no great size, the building must
have been a very beautiful specimen of the
architecture of that period.
The present farm-buildings, in which are in-
72
THE FARM
corporated portions of the abbey, were erected
about 1750, and are now fast falling into decay,
for the house is occupied by a fisherman and
a wild-fowler, to whom the great out-buildings
are useless.
As we move quietly away to the boat, to be
rowed across the ship canal, the buried past,
in which we have been dwelling, and in fancy
almost hearing the great bell in the tower calling
the faithful to evensong from across the marshes,
is on a sudden forgotten, as a steamer hurries
swiftly along the ship canal on its voyage through
Eastern Wirral to the great ocean beyond, and
spells for us the great change that has occurred
in our habits, thoughts, and life, since the good
Cistercian monks held sway at Stanlaw.
73
CHAPTER VI
STOKE IN I8l6
IT was as fine a May morning as a man might
wish to breathe upon when Ellesmere Port was
left behind and the road to Whitby stretched
ahead, and I went whistling on my way to Stoke.
How different the prospect was from the ex-
pected, for Ormerod had been read and digested.
He dwelt in this neighbourhood, and therefore
wrote about it with an understanding mind, and
he is such a trustworthy historian that, when he
describes a place, one instantly views it through
his eyes, forgetting that nearly a century has
closed since his book appeared. Listen how
sourly he writes of Stoke, whither our footsteps
are leading us. " The village is (1816) a collec-
tion of ragged, filthy hovels, scattered round the
church without the least attention to arrange-
ment, on a small elevation adjacent to the marshes
through which the Gowy forces its way to a
confluence with the Mersey. Of the roads it
may be sufficient to say that they are not worse
than could be expected, after stating that the soil
is deep clay, that materials are distant, the land-
74
SOUTHERN BOUNDARY OF WIRRAL
lord an absentee, and the tenants of a description
peculiarly apt to neglect their duty in this respect
under a strong stimulus and more favourable cir-
cumstances." After first reading this description
it was with a heavy heart that the writer of these
lines set out for Stoke, and his delight at the
altered circumstances of the country-side, the
people, and their habitations may be easily ima-
gined, for in many ways it is one of the fairest
parts of the peninsula.
At Stanlaw we stand at the eastern boundary
of Wirral, and the deep valley which forms the
southern boundary of the Hundred has to be
entered, through which the Shropshire Union
Canal has been cut, so that it is possible, by
making friends with a bargeman, to traverse
southern Wirral by water ; and a pretty inland
voyage it is, along and by prosperous farm-houses
and through meadows filled with well-bred cattle.
The physical geography of this valley is said
to have been greatly altered, and the Mersey is
considered at one time to have flowed through it
to mingle its waters with the Dee, whence they
flowed together to the sea ; but it is a theory
which I can neither confirm nor dispute.
The road runs from Ellesmere by Whitby,
once a pleasant pretty village, and not yet shorn
of all its beauty, though new buildings are
creeping up to it, and it can now boast of a steam
laundry, where the residents of Ellesmere get
75
STANNEY OLD HALL
their linen washed. But once past Stoke the
road stretches through a charming, well-timbered
country, for it is a warm valley, pleasant in the
spring-time, when the violets peep through the
hedgerows and the belching winds of March go
roaring over the tree-tops and blow the rooks
across the sky ; or in May, when the apple- and
pear-trees are in bloom ; or in autumn, when the
trees stand partly leafless against the golden
evening sky.
It is but a few miles to Little Stanney, a
charming old Cheshire village where well-to-do
farmers reside, with orchards about their houses ;
and in May, when the fruit-trees are in full
blossom, it is a sight not readily forgotten and
worth pausing to view from some coign of vantage,
and listen to the music the village blacksmith
beats from his anvil.
In the reign of Richard I. the Bunburys dwelt
here in Stanney Old Hall, which has unfortunately
entirely disappeared, its site being at present oc-
cupied by a substantial farm-house, still called
Stanney Hall, having in certain portions of the
grounds faint traces of the moat which surrounded
the ancient seat of the Bunburys. The old hall
was still standing when Ormerod wrote, and he
says: " It was built of timber and surrounded by
enormous barns, apparently of the same age with
the rest of the fabric, the whole being encom-
passed by a moat." Some parts of this building
76
STOKE
were considered as old as the time of Henry
V. An act of vandalism took place, and the
building was taken down by order of an agent,
the wood-work and panelling being sold to the
village blacksmith, who, in this case, secured a
great bargain, for in breaking up the old beams
for firewood a large parcel of gold coins was
found concealed in one of them, the money having
probably been placed there for safety during the
troubles of the Civil War. However, the finding
of the hidden treasure became noised abroad, and
in the end poor Vulcan had to repay a sum of
nearly one hundred pounds.
A little further is Stoke, another pretty out-of-
the-world village, which in May displays a wealth
of fruit-blossom, and where, if you arrive with a
pang of healthful hunger, you may take your ease
in the tiny little Bunbury Arms Inn whilst they
prepare you a meal.
William Webb, who visited Stoke in the seven-
teenth century, says : " From thence we come to
Stoke, a little parish church adjoining to that
fair demesne and ancient seat of the Bunburies,
of good worship, called Stanney-Hall, and which
may be glad of the worthy present owner, Sir
Henry Bunbury, knight, whose grave and well-
disposed courses procure unto him a special good
estimation, for his endeavours to do good in public
government, and his more private affairs also."
The Bunbury family can point to one ancestor,
77
THE BUNBURYS
at least, who was a great warrior, for Sir Roger
de Bunbury was a commander in the first wars of
Edward III., who, it is stated, added the chess-
rooks to the plain bend of the paternal coat, in
compliment to his skill as a tactician.
The Bunburys have long ceased to reside in
Cheshire, but two of their descendants are inter-
esting men. Sir Henry Bunbury, Bart., a soldier
and historian who distinguished himself at the
battle of Maida, 1 806 ; he was a pioneer of the
Volunteer Movement, and in 1815 conveyed
to Napoleon his sentence of deportation to St.
Helena. His father, Henry William Bunbury, is
interesting on account of his skill as an artist and
amateur caricaturist, his " Academy for Grown
Horsemen " being very clever and spirited, and
calling forth the high praise of Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds. His wit, perhaps, appears slightly dull to
the present age, and his burlesque drawings a
little gross ; but many a countryman still smiles,
as he drinks his glass of ale, at the broad fun of
Bunbury which decorates the walls of the inn.
The church is interesting mainly on account of
the monuments to the Bunbury family, which
cover a period of nearly two hundred years, the
walls of the north and south transepts being
hung with their hatchments, some of which are
cleverly painted, and are said to have been
executed by the famous herald, Randle Holme,
and the chancel window is filled with richly
78
STOKE CHURCH
stained glass, in which are the arms of the Bun-
burys. When Ormerod visited the church it was
a picturesque building, and from the fragments
of the architecture he decided it to be nearly
coeval with the Conquest; and at the west end
was a wooden belfry, which was then in a very
dangerous state of dilapidation. The church
was partly rebuilt in 1827, and is of red sand-
stone, embosomed in fine old trees, which looked
on the ancient building, and have weathered the
storms of centuries. In the churchyard is an
interesting old sun-dial, and the church tower
holds a peal of bells, all of which are dated and
have inscriptions : —
" 1617. Gloria in excelsis Deo."
" 1642. God save his church."
" 1 66 1. God save his church. Our King and Realm."
Retracing our steps to Little Stanney, and
passing the blacksmith's shop, Rake Hall will be
found on the left-hand side of the road. The
building has been partly modernised, and is now
a private residence. When the old hall at
Stanney fell into decay the Bunburys took up
their residence at this more modern house, which,
in a moment of conviviality, was named Rake
Hall. The origin of the name was recorded on
a pane of glass which, in Ormerod's day, was fixed
in the kitchen window. It was dated December
15, 1724, and inscribed with the names of the
79
THE HOME OF GEORGE ORMEROD
guests then present ; evidently there was a con-
vivial gathering of Cheshire gentlemen, for among
the guests were Sir Charles Bunbury, Sir R.
Grosvenor, Sir W. Stanley, Sir Francis Poole,
and other well-known Cheshire names. Despite
the story of the pane of glass, it is much more
likely that the hall took its name on account of
it being close to, or on the road, for a rake means
a lane, or road.
The road leads, with many a bend, through
the farm lands, where stalwart ploughmen trudge
their weary way, to Chorlton, where the Barons
of Dunham were probably lords soon after the
Conquest. Chorlton Hall is a large stone build-
ing, and the architect had an eye for a situa-
tion, placing his hall in an elevated position
commanding pleasing and extensive views of the
Cheshire hills. The district is nicely wooded,
and lies safely away from traffic, but if for no
other reason it always attracts the present
writer because it was formerly the home ol
George Ormerod, LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., the
great and learned historian of Cheshire, whose
work is so often quoted in these pages, and to
which he gave up nine years of his life, complet-
ing his book in his thirty-fourth year. He spent
his summers in this house and his winters in
London, examining and referring to historical
documents to be used in his work, in which he
has without doubt raised to himself a great and
80
GEORGE ORMEROD
enduring monument. No trouble was too great,
no distance too long, and no researches too
arduous, which would throw the smallest light
on a historical point connected with his subject,
and it is truly said of this great work "that for
literary merit it stands unsurpassed ; and for a
knowledge of the very foundations of the law of
real property, so essential to such a work, its
author takes very high rank."
Mr. Ormerod sold the whole of his estate in
this manor in 1823 to Richard Wicksted for the
sum of eight thousand pounds, and died at his
residence, Sedbury Park, Gloucestershire, aged
eighty-eight. It may be well said of him, as he
said of Sir Peter Leycester, "It only remains to
repeat every praise that can be due to the natural
ability of that historian who, to indefatigable per-
severance in searching after truth, united honesty
and fearlessness in uttering it."
From Chorlton it is a nice walk to Backford,
which is nearly four miles outside Chester walls.
The church is on an eminence hard by the road,
and is dedicated to St. Oswald, but has been partly
rebuilt within recent years, and, except the tower,
little of the ancient building remains. It possesses
a chained Bible printed by Robert Barker, and
dated London, 1617, but it is badly imperfect.
About 1570 the Birkenheads resided here,
having purchased the estates from Thomas
Aldersey, and they continued in possession until
81 F
LEA
the family became extinct in male heirs in 1724,
on the death of Thomas Birkenhead.
One member of this Wirral family became
famous — Sir John Birkenhead — who, during the
Civil War, was editor of Mercurius Aulicus, or
the Court Mercury, the vehicle of communication
between the Court at Oxford and the remainder
of the kingdom. Sir John excelled in satirical
wit, and did not spare his opponents, for he
seems to have possessed a genuine power of
ridicule, his wit having been compared with that
of Butler.
The road goes still downhill to Lea, where
William Webb arrived in the seventeenth cen-
tury, and found " a fair house and fine demesne,
so called, and hath been the mansion for some
descents of the Glaziers, Esquires of special note,
and good account ; " but their old hall has now
entirely disappeared.
Perhaps the Glaziers did not deserve this
eulogium, for they are said to have been Manx-
men, who were allured to England by the
prospect of participating in the revenues of
the dissolved monasteries.
The manor of Lea was part of the endow-
ment of the monastery of St. Werburgh, but
in the thirteenth century a great deal of the
land was appropriated by the master, or chief
cook of the abbot, an hereditary office, by virtue
of which the cook was entitled to certain per-
82
MOLUNGTON HALL
MOLLINGTON
quisites of, and in, the kitchen, " together with
eight bovates of land in the neighbouring town-
ship of Huntingdon, which, in the abbacy of
William de Marmion, 1226 to 1228, were ex-
changed for an equal quantity of land in Lea
and Newton." Evidently it was worth while being
a chief cook to the abbots of those days, and
assuredly the abbots did not believe that " God
sends meat and the devil sends cooks."
From Lea it is a pretty walk to Mollington,
which is mentioned in the Domesday Book
under the name of Molintone as being held
by Robert de Rodelent, the Norman baron
of Rhuddlan, who was the friend and General-
in-Chief of the forces of the great Hugh Lupus,
to whom, says Pennant, " the Conqueror dele-
gated a fulness of power, made his a county Pala-
tine, and gave it such sovereign jurisdiction, that
the ancient Earls kept their own parliament, and
had their own courts of law, in which any offence
against the dignity of the sword of Chester was
as cognizable as the like offence would have been
at Westminster against the dignity of the royal
crown." Robert de Rodelent pursued the Welsh
remorselessly, and, taking Rhuddlan, he restored
and partly rebuilt Rhuddlan Castle. He is
described as "a valiant and active soldier, elo-
quent, liberal, and commendable for many virtues,
but of stern countenance." At last the Welsh
had their revenge, for, on the 3rd of July 1088,
83
ROBERT DE RODELENT
they caught him accompanied by a single soldier.
He was not the man to run away, and, drawing
his sword, stood ready to defend himself to the
last ; but none of the Welsh dared approach him
with their swords, so they brought up their bow-
men, and he fell at last " beneath a shower of
arrows."
Mollington Hall lies hidden from the road
by a belt of trees, and is surrounded by a high
brick wall, which ensures the occupants privacy
from the public gaze, except when some way-
farer eludes the gardeners in order to have a
good look at the handsome and spacious mansion,
which stands on a slight elevation, and is built
of red brick, which time has softened in colour.
It is sheltered by trees from the north and east
winds, and overlooks pretty gardens which slope
to the park, in which is a chain of ornamental
lakes, on which congregate numerous wild-fowl.
Tradition says that it was the cackling of geese
that saved Rome ; but it is quite certain that
those watchful birds came near to betraying the
presence of the writer as he lay by the margins
of the lake, making him wish he had had the
good sense to go to the hall, and ask for per-
mission to see the gardens. Verily "the curiosity
of knowing things has been given to man for
a scourge."
At Mollington it is best to leave Wirral
and enter the • precincts of Chester to reach
84
BLACON POINT
Blacon, and, turning down Chester Street, it is
but a nice walk of less than a mile on the Park-
gate Road, when on the brow of the hill, a cinder
walk marked private will be found running over
the fields, and pursuing this for a short distance,
you will find yourself on Blacon Point, on which
is situated a large farm with good out- buildings.
Blacon House, which is adjacent, looks over to
Chester, the high and precipitous point on which
it stands being now prettily wooded, but in
former years the point formed one of the
boundaries of the Dee, which spread itself out
to the city walls. Now the engineer has set
the river a course, and it is not free to stray
to Blacon Point ; but it is easy to understand
that in the early period of its history the banks
were well wooded as far as Hilbre, so that it need
not then have been a difficult task for the squirrels
to skip from tree to tree, as we are told they
did in the ancient rhyme. The view of Chester
from this point is a pleasing one, for the houses
appear to cling about the cathedral, which, over-
topping all other buildings, dominates the situa-
tion, and draws upon itself the eager gaze of
those who know good architecture.
Returning to the road, which now enters a
pretty stretch of country, with hedgerows full of
wild flowers, and here and there a patch or two
of gorse, and in May, when the horse-chestnut
trees are in flower, it is well worth walking
85
MRS. MARY DAVIES
slowly to Great Saughall, where the village inn
is named " The Swinging Gate," and attached to
a tree is a model of a gate with the following
verse below it : —
" This gate hangs well,
It hinders none,
Refresh and pay,
Then travel on."
For those who have looked into that old
and neglected book, Leigh's " Natural History
of Lancashire," it is impossible to pass through
Saughall without in fancy seeing poor Mrs. Mary
Davies coming up the road to her cares, and
doing her best, poor soul, to hide the horrible
horns which grew from her head. She had an
excrescence on her head for upwards of thirty
years, and when she was sixty years old "it
changed into horns, in show and substance much
like rams' horns, solid and wrinkled, but sadly
grieving the old woman, especially upon change
of weather." So curious a sight at last became
noised beyond Cheshire, and Mrs. Mary Davies
was taken to London and exhibited at the Signe
of the Swanne, near Charing Cross. In the
British Museum is a rare pamphlet entitled, " A
Brief Narrative of a strange and wonderful old
woman, that hath a pair of horns growing upon
her head : giving an account of how they have
several times, after being shed, grown again :
declaring the place of her birth, her education
86
MRS. MARY DAVIES
and her conversation, with the first occasion of
their growth, the time of their continuance and
vjhe 'fsrtrailure. efJlaty Tfatrtj an JnJLaJtO. **
alltuar Oilier, ta£en.^n.e.T>om.j.668
otjlic tens tarenty eyht year o& Jhz,
fata an. excre/caux. upm her fte^if, nrhuk ccm&nu&L*
3*. years Ube tiro. Warn.- then. yrenr into 2. k
f.yearj Joe. ca/tt/um: tken-aretv ft. mare .'
Jhe caftAfffe. ttefc ifum 7ur- head have, qnani. 4.
and. are teat . ^
where she is now to be seen, namely, at the Signe
of the Swanne, near Charing Cross.
You that love wonders to behold,
Here you may of a wonder rede,
The strangest that was ever seen or told,
A woman with horns upon her head.
London: printed by T. S., 1676." In the Ash-
molean Museum, Oxford, there is a portrait of
87
GREAT SAUGHALL
this poor afflicted woman taken in her seventy-
second year, where is also preserved one of the
horns. Mrs. Mary Davies lived to a great age,
and was exhibited in London in her eighty-first
year.
Here, again, it is hardly possible to understand
how Ormerod could describe Great Saughall in
the following terms : — " With the exception of
one or two buildings of a more decent appear-
ance, it is an assemblage of ill-arranged and
squalid huts of the most neglected and com-
fortless appearance." These are hard and biting
words, and, it may be added, after making due
allowance for the improvement of nearly a cen-
tury, an over-painted picture. Ormerod seems
to have lacked a trick of gaiety, and constantly
dips his pen very deeply in gall when writing
about the villages of Wirral.
Passing through Great Saughall, a road will be
found on the left marked " To Shotwick Park,"
and, turning along it, you are on a private road
where the motor cannot follow, so that you may
enjoy yourself, and lie out on the sunny side of
the hedges and be certain of not finding the
remains of a picnic. And so in studied leisure
you issue into the open road, and, turning to the
left, soon join the great high road to Queen's
Ferry, which hurry along, for it is sometimes
crawling with motors, then turn to the left and
go down to Shotwick. How long will this walk
88
TIME NO OBJECT
take you? I am sure I cannot tell you. Get a
map and measure the distance for yourself. Take
your lunch with you, and don't take a watch, and
you will be there when you arrive. That is the
only way to enjoy this walk.
89
SHOTWICK
IT is impossible to stand meditating beneath the
trees at Shotwick without feeling the buried past
arise before the mind's eye in a great pageant.
To most Wirral men this village has a peculiar
interest, for it was in former times the most im-
portant place in the Hundred, and it was there
that some of the great warriors of England came,
and where the gentlemen of Cheshire assembled
their armed men to embark for Ireland. In the
thirteenth century, before the Dee had silted up
and changed its course, Shotwick was an im-
portant port, and many a company of Wirral
archers under the Stanleys, the Pooles, and others
assembled here to be taken to Ireland.
In 1256 the Welsh rose in rebellion and forced
their way to Chester, plundering and devastating
the country-side, and in the following year the
Earl of Chester had to retire before two bodies
numbering 30,000 each. The barons, assembled
at Shotwick, induced the king to help them as
their situation was becoming desperate, provisions
being scarce, for, like other parts of England,
90
SHOTWICK
•
Wirral was suffering from famine, and wheat had
risen from 2s. the quarter to 155., and even 205.
This seems a small price when compared with
that of wheat to-day, but it must be remembered
that money had a greater purchasing power in
those days, and the price put this necessity of life
beyond the reach of most.
What a busy place Shotwick must have been
in the thirteenth century when compared with the
sleepy little village it is now. Fancy the great
barons assembled there with their retinues, the
street ringing to the tramp of armed men march-
ing with warlike bustle, and in the mornings the
famous Wirral archers at practice with their long
bows, sending the great grey-goose shafts fleet-
ing through the still air, singing in their flight
like huge hornets as they found their way to
the targets. It was a law that a butt should be
erected in every township, and the inhabitants
were obliged to practice at them on Sundays
and holy days, and were liable to a fine for not
doing so.
In 1 280 the most important man in England,
and one of the wisest, most illustrious, and greatest
warriors who has ever occupied a throne, visited
Shotwick, for in September of that year King
Edward I., to whose wise statesmanship we owe
our Parliament, was in Shotwick, and spent
September 5, 15, 16, and 17 of that year there
on his way to and from Rhuddlan and Flint. He
SHOTWICK
had been in the neighbourhood previously, for he
personally superintended the building of Flint
Castle, and employed Richard Ingeniator, of
Chester, as his principal engineer.
But gradually the Dee silted up, and Shotwick
was left high and dry, the population moving
away to more prosperous places in Wirral to the
north, for Neston and Parkgate, Dawpool and
West Kirby gradually became the ports — espe-
cially Parkgate, which was in constant use to
embark and disembark troops and merchandise
to and from Ireland. So Shotwick stands on the
fringe of the marshes, and a very small fringe it
is, for the Dee has been set a course, and much
useful land reclaimed which fifty years ago was
the home of numerous wild-fowl, who secured
good feeding on the great marsh. The writer's
father once found himself in difficulties there on
a bleak wintry day when he had been out wild-
fowling, and had been too intent on the ducks to
notice that the rising tide was rapidly surrounding
him. Now sheep and cattle feed where the wild-
fowl used to breed.
The family of Shotwicke came to an end when
Alice de Shotwicke conveyed the manor away
by her marriage to Richard de Hockenhull, in
the reign of Edward I. ; and in the reign of
Henry VII. Richard de Hockenhull claimed the
rights of fishing in the parts of the Dee which
flowed past his manor, excepting " the dainty
92
o
EC
SHOTWICK CHURCH
bits, the whalle, sturgion, and thorlehede," which
he was ordered to reserve for the use of the
Earl at Chester Castle.
The manor was held by the Hockenhulls until
1715, when, owing to debts, they sold it to the
Bennetts of Chester.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Michael,
is of the greatest interest, and, although rebuilt
in the fifteenth century, is of a very remote foun-
dation, possibly Anglo-Saxon. The south door-
way is particularly interesting.
At the west end of the aisle is a very curious
old square churchwarden's pew, over which is a
canopy of oak on which is carved " Robert Coxon,
James Gilbert, 1709," and on the pew is deeply
cut the names of Henry Gowin and William
Huntington, church-wardens, 1673. There is,
too, a clerk's desk, reading-desk, and pulpit of
the ancient "three-decker" form. The windows
were doubtless at one time richly decorated with
stained glass, of which, however, only a few
fragments remain.
It is pleasant to find some name honoured in
literature connected with Shotwick, and the name
of the Rev. Samuel Clarke, who was the Vicar
of Shotwick for five years, must not be passed
unrecorded. He was an industrious writer, pro-
ducing many works, excellent in their day and
still referred to, and he must have turned over a
prodigious number of volumes to accumulate such
93
SHOTWICK CASTLE
a mass of anecdote as is to be found in the
"Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons in this Latter
Age." He was a most upright and conscientious
gentleman, and feeling he could not take the et
cetera oath, refused it, and drew up a petition
on the subject, which he presented to the King.
About 1662 he was ejected from the Church of
England for nonconformity, but remained to the
end warmly attached to its doctrine.
The site of the ancient and formidable Castle
of Shotwick stands on the verge of the boundaries
of Cheshire and Flintshire, immediately below
the farm called Shotwick Lodge, which is one of
the largest farms in the Hundred of Wirral, over
420 acres being highly cultivated. The founda-
tions, now grassy knolls, command a pleasing
prospect, and the deep moat which surrounds the
knolls is distinctly traceable, although even in
Webb's day the castle was a desolate ruin, for
he writes : " That gallant park, called Shotwick
Park, where sometimes have been, and yet are
remaining, the ruins of a fair castle upon the
brink of the Dee, within the park, in which is
also a fine lodge for the habitation of the keepers
of the Prince's Highness deer in that park." But
here now are only to be found prosperous farms,
in the out-buildings of some of which are to be
seen ancient worked stones.
Shotwick Hall, a little to the north-east of the
church, is an interesting specimen of the dwellings
94
FIELD PATH TO PUDDINGTON
of the squires of the seventeenth century, for it is
a well-preserved building, erected in 1662 by
Joseph Hockenhull and his wife Elizabeth. In
the spring, when the lilac is in bloom and the
tender greens are on the trees, it is one of the
most picturesque old dwellings in Wirral.
Looking from Shotwick over the flat reclaimed
lands, which are well farmed and slope to the
Dee, it is difficult to imagine that this sleepy
little village was once a harbour and military
post, and that its streets resounded to the tramp
of mailed knights and was visited by one of the
greatest kings of England. All is ephemeral
and subject to change, for " time is a sort of river,
by which one place is swept away for another
to take its place, and one spot is obliterated in
order that another may shine the brighter."
At a short distance beyond Shotwick Hall the
farm road ends in a pathway over the green
fields, pleasantly copse-wooded all the way to
Puddington Old Hall, now the residence of
Arthur B. Earle, Esq. The views to the west
when the Dee is flooding and the sea-birds are
congregating at the tail of the great sandbanks,
are not easily surpassed, whilst overhead the
larks are carolling, and the Welsh hills hold
up their heads as though they wished to peep
over the rim of the sea. I trespassed a little
to better enjoy the view, and strayed so far
from the pathway that a farm-hand, a great burly
95
PUDDINGTON OLD HALL
good-tempered-looking fellow, looked askance at
me, as though he saw in me a possible poacher.
But I spoke to him in the friendly manner oi
the man of the road, and straightway we fell
to talking, and I got much useful information,
learning among other matters that his wages
were eighteen shillings a week, out of which
he supported, in great respectability and com-
parative comfort, a wife and several children.
Once across the fields the road leads to the
little village of Puddington, past Puddington
Hall, and in a few moments you are standing
by Puddington Old Hall, now re-built with taste,
what remains of the old building being recased.
In former years the house was surrounded by
a deep moat, part of which remains, but instead
of containing water it is planted with pretty
flowering shrubs. The interesting old draw-
bridge was standing less than a hundred years
ago, and although time has changed the building
and obliterated much of its historic interest, time
can never obliterate the interest with which the
family of Massey has surrounded the site of
their ancient home. They were warriors all,
and donned their harness as easily as they drew
their breath, and if there was a company of
bowmen to be trained and sent anywhere, as
sure as fate there was a Massey to lead them
on, and ensure their victory.
Richard Massey, a younger brother of Hamon,
96
WILLIAM MASSEY
the fifth baron of Dunham, settled here early in
the thirteenth century, and Sir John Massey,
seneschal to Elizabeth, Countess of Salisbury,
was a warrior of reputation in the fourteenth
century, and a great figure in the French
wars.
The Masseys, like the Stanleys and the
Pooles, were zealous Catholics, and William
Massey, the last heir male of the line, is per-
haps the most interesting figure in Wirral his-
tory. He was a happy bachelor, and so zealous
for his faith that he nearly came to blows with
Sir Thomas Grosvenor, who was a staunch
Protestant, for corresponding with his wife on
religious matters. Bishop Cartwright has the
following entry in his diary respecting this
matter : — " Mr. Massey dined with me, and after
supper Mr. Massey came to me again, and dis-
coursed with me concerning poor Sir Thomas
Grosvenor's carriage to his wife, and her resolu-
tion to enter into a monastery if he did not alter
speedily, and consult her reputation and his own
better than he did." It is impossible not to
sympathise with Sir Thomas Grosvenor's objec-
tion to his wife corresponding so frequently
with the happy and well-favoured bachelor at
Puddington.
But trouble was brewing for the zealous
Massey, who, when the news came of the
secret meetings in favour of the Pretender, like
97 G
THE PRETENDER
most of the leading Roman Catholic families,
hailed his coming with a delight born of the
persecutions to which their families had been
subjected ; and it must be remembered that
to Massey and his friends he was no Pre-
tender, but King James III., for had not
King Louis, on the death of James II.,
acknowledged his son as King? So William
Massey called for his horse, and rode out of
Wirral into Lancashire to join Forster, the
Pretender's general.
He was doubtless in Lancaster when the
Pretender was proclaimed King, and marched
with the army over the vile roads, entering
Preston on the day following, where he would
be with the leaders when they repaired to the
market-place and again declared the Pretender
King of England.
On November 12, 1715, General Wills, with
the royal forces, was able to invest the place
completely, but not before there had been
sanguinary fighting, the Royalists losing about
200 killed and wounded, and the Jacobites, who
were fighting behind the barricades they had
erected, 42. The Jacobites then tried to make
terms, but General Wills sent them back the
stinging reply that he refused to treat with
rebels, but that he would do his utmost to
prevent his soldiers cutting them to pieces. So
on the 1 4th General Forster surrendered, but
98
THE ESCAPE
not before many of the Jacobites had secretly
left the town on the night of the I2th.
Among them was William Massey, who, well
mounted, got through the investing forces, and
was soon urging his horse with whip and spur
in the direction of Ormskirk, and, passing through
the outskirts of Liverpool, he would spend a night
under the stars, and knowing that all the ferries
would be well watched, he would most probably
ride on to the little village of Oglett, near Hale,
where the water was shallow, and where in cer-
tain states of the tide there used to be a ford.
But whether he succeeded in reaching the ford
or not, he certainly put his horse at the upper
reaches of the Mersey, and succeeded in reaching
his home at Puddington Hall. The state of
both man and beast may well be imagined, and
one is not surprised to learn that next day the
horse died and was buried, so the local tradition
states, in a certain spot close to the house, and
the country folk point out the very stone under
which he lies !
But Massey bore too good a name not to be
duly noted, and in a little time he was arrested
and removed to Chester Castle, where he died
very shortly after, probably a broken heart being
one of the causes of his death. He bequeathed
his estates to his little godson, William Stanley,
who assumed the name of Massey.
The great racing stables, erected by the
99
"LOFTY SEAT OF PUDDINGTON"
Stanleys, which were one of the causes of the
ruin of the ancient house of the Stanleys of
Hooton, are hard by, and are now put to better
use. The Priest's house, in front of which is
the moat, has been tastefully restored, and on
a sunny wall hard by, the wistaria hangs in rich
clusters. And so the Wirral Masseys, like the
Wirral Stanleys, have passed away, one Sir
John Massey dying fighting with his face to the
enemy on the side of Percy on the battlefield
of Shrewsbury in 1403, and the last William
Massey dying a poor, forlorn, broken rebel in
the King's prison at Chester, hard by the home
of his fathers, which he was never to revisit.
Well, well, perhaps it is best that old families
should die out and let new men in, thus prevent-
ing the world becoming too mouldy, and merely
breeding the past. And so we bid good-bye to
what William Webb describes as " that gallant
lofty seat of Puddington, overlooking the sea,"
and go for some four miles to the north-east
to Capenhurst.
Capenhurst is nearly six miles from Chester,
and is situated on a plateau 137 feet above sea
level, from which the land slopes gently.
The district is pleasantly broken by numerous
plantations, and, on leaving the railway station, a
wood will be noticed on the left, shielding Capen-
hurst Hall from the road. There is a wicket-
gate which gives access to a path leading through
100
CAPENHURST
private grounds to the hall, along which the
writer ventured to trespass, and was rewarded for
his iniquity by viewing one of the prettiest wood
gardens he has ever beheld. It was in May, and
the bulbous plants were blooming in every direc-
tion, the colours and arrangement being carefully
chosen, so that a patch of bright yellow gave
vehemence to the flare of red and blue beyond.
Unfortunately, the old timber mansion, the seat
of the Capenhursts, has been taken down, and
the present hall has been erected for perhaps a
hundred years. It is a substantial brick build-
ing, to which a wing has been more recently
added, not to the improvement of its architectural
appearance.
The manor of Capenhurst belonged in the
reign of Edward I. to the family of Capenhurst,
and in the year 1701 Lord Cholmondeley had
two-thirds of the manor, his ancestors having
held land here as early as the reign of Henry
VII. Sir James Poole held the other third, with
the ancient hall. The manor of Capenhurst was
purchased by Richard Richardson from Lord
Cholmondeley in 1790, and his descendants still
occupy the estate and hall.
It is a very compact estate of about two
miles in extent, and the land, which seems good
and well farmed, is let to the tenants at a
low rent, on which they ought to be able to
make a good return. The village of Capenhurst
101
CAPENHURST
is pretty, and the church, which was erected in
1858 by the Rev. R. Richardson, is well worthy
of a visit, if only to see the beautiful and soberly
coloured stained-glass windows by H. W. Bryans,
a former pupil of Kemp, several of which are to
the memory of the members of the Richardson
family. Round the doorway is carved, " To the
glory of God, the Holy, Blessed, and Glorious
Trinity, this church was built and endowed by
the Rev. Richard Richardson of Capenhurst Hall,
M.A. Born A.D. 1811, died A.D. 1885."
The situation of Capenhurst is good, and the
district is salubrious. Of a family of five brothers
named Maddock, farmers who lived here, Or-
merod quotes the Chester Courant as saying that
"It consisted of five brothers, whose ages ranged
from 86 to 94. The aggregate of the ages was
450 years, giving an average of 90 to each. They
were all, from the youngest to the eldest, per-
fectly competent to manage their business. They
were good horsemen, active pedestrians, and
capable of reading without the aid of glasses.
The eldest, who wanted but six years of a cen-
tury in age, had not abandoned any of the busi-
ness duties with which his life had been associated,
and gave promise of becoming a centenarian."
No trace of the graves of these gentlemen could
be found by the present writer, nor was the inci-
dent known in Capenhurst.
102
CHAPTER VIII
WILLASTON
IF ever the reader finds himself at Hooton, and
the day appears to promise well, let him turn
along the road which runs west to the ancient
little village of Willaston, and go soon, for the
building spirit is in the air, and land has acquired
a building land value, so that men who bought
it by the acre will now offer it you by the yard.
The district is such an agreeable one to dwell in
that it is certain to lose, in the not distant future,
the pleasant flavour of an out-of-the-way place.
At present it is one of the most sequestered
villages in the Hundred, and it is not easy, in so
narrow a compass, to see grouped so many in-
teresting ancient farm-houses, several of which
are now standing vacant, for the Corbett estates
in Willaston have been recently sold.
In the reign of Henry VII. the Trussels held
Willaston, and the estates passed by marriage
to John Vere, courtier of Henry VIII., the first
Protestant Earl of Oxford, whose grandson
Edward, eighteenth Earl, sold the manor in the
reign of Elizabeth to several freeholders.
103
WILLASTON HALL
Willaston Hall stands almost on the road, and
is a difficult building to photograph, because it is
surrounded by a high wall, and the front is partly
hidden by a beautiful spreading chestnut-tree.
It is a nice old brick building, lighted by bay
windows, and there is a large and handsome
entrance-porch. It was erected by the Bennetts
in 1558, and continued to be their residence for
several centuries ; it has, however, been modern-
ised, and is now a farm-house.
What an auspicious date to erect their dwelling,
for in 1558 that magnanimous and prudent lady,
Queen Elizabeth, succeeded to the throne of
England, and was crowned the next year. So
that within these walls the Bennetts would whisper
the news of the murder of Darnley and the exe-
cution of the Queen of Scots. Again, these
walls would echo to the shouts of joy when the
news of the defeat of the great Spanish Armada
came and spread like wildfire. Such houses as
this are inestimable national treasures, and bring
vividly before the imagination the historical
scenes and interesting periods through which
they have stood.
Nothing, perhaps, is more characteristic of
rural life than a village alehouse, and in the Red
Lion Inn, Willaston possesses an interesting speci-
men of the old English inn. It is a half-timber
and brick building of about the Elizabethan period,
and before newspapers existed the inn was a sort
104
AN OLD ENGLISH INN
of news-room, where the villagers came to drink
their ale and learn the latest news ; and it would
be here that the Puritan would cast sour glances
at the Cavalier as he left the inn ; and it would
be here, too, that the news of the battle of
Marston Moor would be learned, and of the
trial and execution of King Charles I.
Willaston still possesses a picturesque old mill,
which is quite a feature of the landscape ; and it
may be noted that on the oldest maps there is a
windmill marked in the village.
The land hereabout is amongst the best in
Cheshire, and a villager with whom the writer
conversed informed him that the landowner in
the district had always been the best of friends
to the farmers, and that Mr. Corbett would be
much missed. The standard wage paid to a
good farm-hand is i8s. per week, and the best
hands receive 205. But their rents have ad-
vanced considerably of late years ; cottages which
formerly rented at 2s. 6d. per week now com-
mand 45. and 45. 6d. — a large slice out of the
1 8s., on which, however, large families are
brought up in some hardship, but in most cases
in great respectability.
Leaving the village, and crossing the line by
Hadlow Road railway station, the road leads
through a rural district towards Burton ; but just
before it joins the Chester road a stone will be
noticed on the left, looking exactly like a stone
105
THE WIRRAL STONE
placed for mounting horses. On examining it
carefully it is perceived that the stone has been
broken in three pieces, and that its present form
is a matter of convenience. A learned man
might give it a learned name, but the name
the villagers give it — men, women, and children
— is not to be written here.
In Ormerod's "History of Cheshire" is the
following note, quoting a letter from the late
Mr. Black: — "The Hundred of Wirral was in
the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries
called Wilaston, Wylaston, or Willaston . . .
there is, or was, or ought to be, a stone in
or near the village of Willaston necessarily
(by measures) forming part of the geometrical
system of Roman topographical engineering in
Cheshire. That stone being situate almost in
the midst of the Forest of Wirral might
easily have obtained the name of Wirral-stone,
whence might have been derived the name
of the townships, and of the whole Hundred,
until the simple name of the Forest attached
itself to the Hundred in the fourteenth cen-
tury."
Is it possible that this is the stone to which
Mr. Black refers, and the one that gave the
name not only to Willaston, but to the whole
of Wirral? That it is an ancient worked stone
is undoubted, and it is pleasant to think that in
this stone is perhaps seen the labour of the Roman
1 06
THE WIRKAL STONE
BURTON VILLAGE
soldiers ; in any case, if only to change its pre-
sent name, and until a better reason is given
for its position and history, it has been christened
the " Wirral-stone,"
Walk slowly from here up the steep hill to
Burton, and notice the dark pine wood which
stretches out on the rim of the hill until the trees
stand almost in single file, whilst here and there
a bright green contrasts vividly with their darker
hues, and, on the top, stop for the view before
going down into the pretty village which straggles
along the road in front. To the west, over the
marshes, the Dee is rising, for which the Welsh
mountains make a fine setting ; whilst to the
south, Chester cathedral fills the eye. In front
is Burton Rectory, and on going down into the
village to where the blossomed pear-tree leans
to the hedge, past the village Institute — one of
the few modern buildings at Burton — the gift of
Henry Neville Gladstone, Esq., of Burton Manor,
the foundation-stone being laid in 1906, and you
are among a most interesting assemblage of old
and picturesque cottages, some of them perched
high above the road on bright red sandstone.
Several of them are in the old Cheshire half-
timber style, whilst everywhere are trim gardens,
quite full of old-fashioned garden flowers. The
quaint little village post-office, with its flare of
white broom in front, contrasting with the red
sandstone upon which it stands, in which are
107
BURTON MANOR
planted some bright rock plants, is a piece of
gaudy colour not easily forgotten.
The manor of Burton, from a very early
period, formed part of the estate of the bishopric
of Coventry and Lichfield, and as Church land
claimed exemption from the harsh customs of
the forest law, one of which was the cruel cus-
tom of cutting the feet of all dogs not belonging
to the lord of the chase until they could pass
through a ring, or "dog-gauge." This the
tenants steadily refused to do, and enforced
their rights of exemption in a court of law.
The manor was purchased in the year 1806
from the Bishop of Lichfield by Richard Con-
greve, of Burton Hall and of Aldermanston
House in the county of Berks, and of Congreve
in the county of Stafford, and continued in the
possession of the family until recently, when
it passed by purchase to Henry Neville Glad-
stone, Esq., the present proprietor.
Two members of the Congreve family are
interesting, one in the seventeenth and eight-
eenth centuries on account of his literary attain-
ments, and the other in the twentieth century
as a gallant soldier. William Congreve, whose
licentious comedies, abounding in witty dialogue,
though banished from the stage, are still largely
read, remains one of the greatest masters of
repartee. He was one of the foremost wits of
his day, and so attracted Voltaire, that he called
108
THE CONGREVES
upon him, and on Congreve saying that he would
rather be considered a gentleman than a poet,
the witty Frenchman replied, "If you had been
merely a gentleman I should not have come to
visit you." He was an intimate friend of the
Duchess of Marlborough, daughter of the great
Duke, and Duchess in her own right. On his
death he left her the whole of his fortune, amount-
ing to ten thousand pounds. The Duchess im-
mediately repaired to her jeweller and spent
seven of the ten thousand pounds on a diamond
necklace. It is said that so devoted was this
eccentric lady to his memory, that she had a
figure of him in wax, which moved by clock-
work, placed daily at her table.
The present writer spent a very happy day
with Captain Congreve in Burton Manor many
years ago, examining his books and pictures.
He then possessed some interesting portraits by
Sir Peter Lely and other great artists, amongst
them being a very fine and interesting portrait
of the witty and lively dramatist ; the artist's
name has faded from memory, but it was not
the well-known portrait by Kneller.
The other interesting figure is Colonel Walter
N. Congreve, V.C.
At the battle of Colenso Colonel Long gal-
loped his guns and unlimbered them within five
hundred yards of the enemy's trenches. But
he had under-estimated the power of modern
109
COL. WALTER N. CONGREVE, V.C.
rifle fire and his teams fell in heaps. Colonel
Long was soon down with a bullet through his
arm and another through his liver. " Abandon
be damned ! We don't abandon guns," he cried,
as they carried him to the shelter of a little
hollow, and so his men served on, until at last
four alone were serving a fifteen-pounder. Soon
one fell mortally stricken, and two others pitched
heavily forward ; the last, unable to work his
gun, stood at attention, "grimy and powder-
stained," until a bullet found its billet. "Will
any one volunteer to save the guns ?" cried Buller.
He did not wait long for a reply. Corporal
Nurse, Gunner Young, and many others re-
sponded, and they were led by three of the
General's aides-de-camp, Congreve, Schofield,
and Roberts. Lieutenant Roberts, the only son
of Lord Roberts, soon fell mortally wounded,
and insisted on being left where he lay lest
he should hamper the others. Captain Con-
greve, in an account of the disaster, says, " My
first bullet went through my left sleeve and made
the joint at my elbow bleed ; next a clod of earth
caught me smack on the right arm, then my horse
got one, then my right leg one, then my horse
another, and that settled us." He managed at
last to crawl away to the shelter of a friendly
donga, and his gallantry has been duly rewarded,
for he is now Colonel Walter N. Congreve, V.C.
The parish church, with its ivy-mantled tower,
no
D*THOMAS WILSON,
BURTON CHURCH
is a picturesque building of red sandstone, and
was handsomely restored in 1870. The north
aisle terminates in a Massey chancel, but their
monuments have been destroyed. One is de-
scribed in the Harleian MSS. as follows : — " In
the Massey chancel an altar tomb of alabaster
with two recumbent figures inlaid in black marble.
The male figure habited in a gown and ruff,
with sword on the right side, the head repos-
ing on a cushion ; the female figure having a
large veil over the head. The hands of both
clasped in prayer. Round the edge of the tomb,
also inlaid in black marble, ' Here lyeth en-
tombed the bodyes of William Massye, of Potin-
ton Esq., who dyed the 4th of June 1579, and
of Anne, his wife, who deceased the (soth) of
November 1568, and had issue betweene them
6 sones and 1 1 daughters.' " Who was the Goth
who destroyed this interesting monument ?
The last of the Masseys, William Massey,
who was out and broken in the cause of the
Pretender, and who died miserably in Chester
Castle, lies buried in Burton. In the parish
registers is the following entry: — "1715 Mr.
William Massey of Puddington buried February
25, 1715-16."
There is a plain tablet on the west wall whose
simple annals are interesting, for it records the
death of the father and mother of Thomas Wil-
son, Bishop of Sodor and Man, who was born
1 1 1
THE BISHOP OF SODOR AND MAN
at Burton in 1663, and was the fifth son of
Nathaniel Wilson of Burton, and his wife, Alice
Sherlock of Oxton. He completed his education
at Trinity College, Dublin, and his uncle, Dr.
Sherlock, rector of Winwick, introduced him to
the Earl of Derby, who was so much impressed
with his learning and simple piety, that in 1697
he offered him the bishopric of Sodor and Man.
The annual revenue was but a modest three
hundred pounds in those days, but so well did
he manage his little estate that he had always
funds at his disposal to feed the poor, as well
as to render help to all in distress. Living a
godly, righteous, and sober life, he was regarded,
not only in this country, but on the Continent,
so highly that Cardinal Fleury is said to have
procured an order from the Court of France
that no French privateers should interfere with
shipping on the coasts of the Isle of Man. Both
King William and Queen Anne offered him better
bishoprics in Ireland and in England, but he
constantly declined them.
He was born in the pretty old farm-house
opposite to the entrance to Burton Manor. In
former years the cottage wore a somewhat neg-
lected air, but lately it has been treated with
generous care, and the addition of the chains
and railings in place of the tumble-down wall,
which once guarded it, has added much to its
present neat and picturesque appearance.
I 12
BURTON PARISH REGISTERS
His works are now little read by the general
public, but he has influenced the men who in-
fluence, and John Henry Newman praises his
life and work highly, saying, " Burning indeed
and shining, like the Baptist, in an evil time, he
seemeth as if a beacon lighted on his small island,
to show what his Lord and Saviour could do
in spite of man." There was a time when no
collector of books felt quite happy unless he
possessed a large paper copy of Bishop Wilson's
edition of the Bible.
In the tower is a peal of six bells, with in-
teresting inscriptions, one of which states "that
Abr : Rudhall cast us all, 1724," and another,
of more recent date, is inscribed : —
" Ring out black sin,
Fair peace ring in."
A.D. 1896.
John Taylor & Co., founders, Loughborough.
The present vicar, the Rev. P. F. A. Morrell,
B.A., has recently published an excellent little
work entitled "Notes on Burton Parish Regis-
ters," which throws much light on the life in
Burton during the past centuries, and is of the
greatest interest : —
" 1645 September the 2Oth the Parliament
forces entered the suburbes of Chester by For-
gate Street fields. On Wednesday the 24th of
September on Routon Moor and Hoole Heath
113 H
BURTON WOODS
were most terrible battayles fought between the
King and Parliament wherein the Parliament
Partie prevayled."
" The Parliament Armie entered into Wales the
second time on Sunday September 28th.
" H. F. CLEARKE."
Imagine the state of Burton village in those
days when the news of these important historic
happenings first reached it. How the Cavaliers
in the little village would hang their heads in
shame and anger, and how the Puritans would
swagger past, with a sour smile of pity for those
poor deluded, wrong-headed Cavaliers ! News,
it is true, travelled slowly, but life was lived
strenuously, even in Burton village, and men
took sides and hated bitterly.
In the woods which crown the summits at
Burton — in which spend plenty of time and listen
to " the wise thrush," whilst enjoying the view
over the Dee — will be found m the pathway,
above the churchyard, two grave-stones lying
side by side, one of which bears the date 1663.
The inscriptions are obliterated, but they are
known to be the last resting-places of two
Quakers, man and wife. In these days we
regard Quakerism as the meekest of faiths ;
but in those days it was looked upon by the
majority of Churchmen and Dissenters as an
active spirit of evil, and they saw contamination
114
O1
THE QUAKERS' GRAVES
and disgrace in everything connected with it ;
so that the two meek Quakers of Burton were
refused, or themselves rejected, burial in Burton
churchyard, choosing as their last sleeping-place
the centre of the pathway, where the men who
had stood on their hearts whilst alive might daily
trample over their heads when dead. The long
intolerant arguments of those days come vividly
before the mind as one views the recumbent
stones, and in fancy we almost hear, " My prison
shall be my grave before I will budge a jot ; for
I owe my conscience to no mortal man."
In former days the woods were unenclosed,
and visitors strayed where they listed, but now
a course is set through them, and if it confines
ardent spirits, at all events it gives the wild-
flowers a chance to survive the depredations of
excursionists, the woods of Burton in the summer
being gay with wild-flowers, which nestle in all
directions amidst the ferns.
The old mill close to the summit of the hill is
a picturesque object, and it was there that John
Haggassman, miller to the Masseys, was killed
by a thunderbolt in 1579, the accident being duly
recorded in the parish registers.
Milling in those days was a rich monopoly,
and the lords of the manor provided a mill for
the accommodation of their tenants, the charge
for grinding being paid by the miller taking a
certain percentage of the grain, and sometimes
DENHALL
he would take twice from the same sack, just
to be quite certain that he had not forgotten
his share. So that it is small wonder that such
a profitable business was well looked after, and
in the parish register there is the following entry :
" Burton Milne was built new by Sir William
Massey Knighte about the feast of all Saints in
anno 1629."
Descend from the mill and walk down to
Burton Rocks, and when you get there look
over the wide stretch of marsh land, over which
the tide is slowly advancing, and listen to the
cries of the wild-fowl which feed in the numerous
gullies and tideways ; and as you look at the
advancing shallow water, remember that Burton
Point was in 1399 the spot where archers and
troops were shipped for Ireland.
A very rough road will be found running by
the fringe of the great marshes past Denhall
House, formerly the seat of Charles Stanley,
Esq., one of the principal proprietors of the
collieries, combining a healthful situation with a
pleasing prospect. The Denhall collieries are not
now worked, although those hard by at Neston
are still yielding a good supply. The hospital
at Denhall was discontinued in 1485, but its
revenues still continue to form part of the income
of the See of Lichfield.
In this little village, hard by Nesse, of which
it is a part, was born Amy Lyon, afterwards to be
116
LADY HAMILTON
known as Emma Hart, and ultimately to become
the celebrated and notorious Lady Hamilton.
What a romance! that out of this little place
should come a country girl of lowly origin, a
serving lass, and rise to be the intimate of a
Queen. Yet so it is, for in the church of Great
Neston is to be found the birth certificate of
this remarkable woman. It is as follows : —
" Emy, Dr of Henry Lyon, smith, of Nesse,
by Mary his wife. Bap. I2th May 1765."
In the same year the little child had the great
misfortune to lose her father, and in the same
church is recorded that " Henry Lyon, of Den-
hall, smith, was buried 2ist June 1765."
Her mother was a native of Hawarden, and
finding it impossible to support herself and family
in Nesse, she removed with her little baby to her
old home, where dwelt her friends, and in the
course of years Emma was trained for domestic
service, growing up a handsome, lively, frolicsome
country lass. She might have walked the ordi-
nary path of one of her station had not Linley the
great composer, who was also a part proprietor
of Drury Lane theatre, needed a nurse girl.
Through a friend Emma was recommended to
him, and she proceeded to London. On her
return to Hawarden for a short holiday, she came
filled to the brim with London life and manners,
some of which were looked at askance by her
former friends, for on her attending Wepre Fair,
117
LADY HAMILTON
held in the neighbourhood, and returning home
at perhaps some unearthly London hour at night,
or possibly early next morning, her friends de-
cided that her ways were no more their ways,
and put a period to her jollity by sending the
giddy girl packing back to London.
Here the gaiety of London life accomplished
its work on the bright and attractive girl, who
ultimately became the mistress of the Hon. Sir
Charles Greville, nephew of Sir William Hamil-
ton. Sir William's wife died in 1782, and in
1784, hearing that his nephew contemplated
marrying Miss Emma Hart, he returned to Eng-
land, and succeeded in averting the threatened
misalliance. Returning abroad, he received a
visit from Miss Emma Hart. Perhaps the re-
fining and' innocent intimacy she had had with
Romney had stripped her of much of her vul-
garity ; but in any case Sir William fell in love
with her, and, after living under his protection,
they were ultimately married in England in 1791
and returned to Naples, where he was English
Ambassador. There she became intimate with
Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, and is said to
have possessed great influence over her. She
first saw Nelson in 1793, and just before going
to the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson, in a codicil
to his will, wrote : " I leave Emma Lady Hamil-
ton a legacy to my King and country."
After Nelson's death Lady Hamilton, through
118
LADY HAMILTON
extravagance, became involved in debt, although
enjoying legacies both from Nelson and Hamil-
ton, and in 1813 was confined a prisoner for debt
in the King's Bench. Ultimately she escaped
from prison to Calais, where she died in the
obscurity in which she had been born. Well !
well ! let others cast the stone, whilst we who
realise how much she sinned and suffered, thank
God, not that we are not as other men are, but
that our temptation has been less, or that we
have been enabled to withstand it better than
the poor country girl born in this little village,
who was afterwards to be known for all time as
Emma, Lady Hamilton.
119
CHAPTER IX
NESTON
I WAS quite hungry when I approached Neston,
and inquiring from a countryman where I could
get something to eat, he replied with a knowing
nod, " Well, sir, wait until you get into the
centre of the town and then — " " Oh," I said,
" is Neston really a town ? " to which he replied
in an apologetic way, " Well, not exactly a town
— still, sir, it used to be afore the big towns
were." Yes, Neston used to be a town before
the big towns grew, and on approaching it now-
adays and passing up its long, straggling main
street, one asks why it was ever classed as a
town, so sleepy does it appear, and so absent is
the scene of bustle and eagerness that is in-
separable from a town, that one wonders why
the little place should be served by two different
lines of railway, and be the proud possessor of
two railway stations, in different quarters.
Yet there was a time when Neston was the
most populous place in the Hundred of Wirral,
and when its streets rang to the tramp of armed
men, for during several centuries it was the town
120
DUCHESS OF CLARENCE
to which travellers from all parts of England
came on their way to Ireland, and in which they
could take their choice of accommodation from
a dozen good inns ; and even with this command
of quarters accommodation was at times hard to
be obtained, and mine host at the inn waxed pros-
perous, for the river Dee had further silted up, and
the Irish packets could neither reach Chester, nor
the once important port of Shotwick, for the
draught of the vessels was growing greater, and
on the Dee trade was moving farther north.
It was in the reign of Edward III. that,
one bitter day in February, Thomas Fox, the
Duke's varlet, hung about in Neston cooling
his heels, and waiting the arrival of his mistress's
body, Elizabeth, Duchess of Clarence, who had
died in Ireland. Day after day he waited, and
still the ship the body was aboard failed to arrive,
but at last the vessel hove in sight, and all Nes-
ton doubtless went out and uncovered as the
body was brought ashore, attended by two officers
of the Princess's household — John de Neuborne,
and her chaplain, Nicholas de Fladburg — who
accompanied the royal corpse on its last journey.
No wonder Thomas Fox had grown anxious,
for no less than fourteen days had been con-
sumed in sailing from Ireland to the port of
Great Neston, and after resting and making the
necessary arrangements, they conveyed the body
to the manor of Bruseyard. An idea of the
121
A GREAT FUNERAL
extent and hardship of travel in those days may
be gathered from the following extract from the
original payment of the Wardrobe Roll : —
" Item on account of the custody of the body
of the said Duchess at Neston in Wyrhale, in-
curred from the beginning by said Nicholas and
John, namely, for fourteen days, i8/. And for
one cart with four horses, conducted from said
town of Neston, conveying the aforesaid corpse
to Chester, 4/. And for one cart, with two men
and six horses, similarly conducted, to convey the
said corpse from Chester to Coventry, whence the
cart came, for six days, at 6/8 a day, 4O/. And
for one other cart, with two men and six horses,
similarly conducted, to convey the said corpse
from Coventry to Bruseyard, in the County of
Suffolk, whence the cart came, for ten days, at
io/ a day, ioo/. And for the journey of Thomas
Ffoc (Fox), varlet of the Duke Clarence, going
from London the first day of February in same
year to Neston in Wyrhale aforesaid, to meet
aforesaid corpse and following it with vehicle
from Neston aforesaid to Bruseyard aforesaid for
29 days, at I2d. each day, 29/."
That was something like a funeral ! Fancy
the time and expense, for although the money
payment sounds small it must be recollected that
its value has greatly changed from those days,
and a journey into Central Africa might almost
122
THE NEW QUAY
be taken to-day in the same amount of time, and
you may safely pity poor Thomas Fox follow-
ing the corpse over the awful winter roads. We
scarcely realise in our day the great advantages
we reap from those mediums of civilisation —
good roads — and we ought all to go down on
our knees and thank Heaven fasting, for the two
great road-makers, Telford and Macadam. Even
in the eighteenth century Arthur Young declared
the road between Liverpool and Manchester to
be so bad that he could find nothing in the whole
range of language to describe it, and he advises
all travellers to avoid it if possible, for some of
the ruts, he says, after a wet summer, were over
three feet deep and full of water. If roads were so
bad in the eighteenth century and in the summer,
what must they have been like in 1364, when
Thomas Fox left Neston in mid-winter ?
It was in the reign of Edward VI. that
Neston grew vastly in importance, for a new
quay or haven was constructed, " All of stone
and in the face or belly of the sea which would
cost at least five thousand or six thousand
pounds," and in order to provide this then large
sum of money the people of Chester were speci-
ally assessed, and even this not providing an
adequate amount, special collections were made
in all the churches in England. At last the
necessary funds were raised and the quay was
constructed, the town gradually spreading itself
123
NESTON COACHES
out, so that in a little while a collection of houses
grew up in the neighbourhood which gradually
became known as Parkgate, and grew into a
watering-place and health resort, to which many
fashionable people came, and where they rested
on their journeys to and from Ireland.
Indeed, so great did the trade and importance of
Neston become, that in 1 780 it was the chief point
of departure for goods and passengers going to
and coming from Ireland, and it was only when
the channel of the Dee was made navigable all
the way to Chester that Neston lost its importance
as a port, and gradually settled down to its present
condition of a nice little sleepy Cheshire town.
Yet Neston was all agog and full of bustle in
the eighteenth century when the coaches came
rattling up the main street from Chester bringing
numerous passengers from London, and were
met by the mail-coach bringing passengers and
mails from Liverpool. From Chester the coaches
passed through Little Mollington, the township
of Shotwick, to the town of Neston, whilst the
mails were conveyed from Liverpool across the
Mersey, and hence through Great Bebington and
Thornton-Mayo to Neston.
When the stormy winds blew and the great
sea-horses were tossing angrily at the mouth of
the Dee, then was the harvest for the inn-
keepers, for their guests were kept waiting
until the weather mended and the masters
124
WAITING FOR THE WIND
thought it safe for their vessels to proceed to
sea. So the women would wait anxiously, and
the men, after consuming numerous bottles of
port — for in those days there were two-bottle
men, three-bottle men, and even four-bottle men
— would proceed in the old roystering way to
a cock-fight, for there was a good pit in the
close neighbourhood, and cock-fighting was a
very usual pastime. Indeed so early as 1619,
William, Earl of Derby, made at Chester " a
fair cock-pitt under St. John's in a garden
by the water side, to which resorted gents of
all parts, and great cocking was used a long
while." Neston was at one time the property
of the Earl of Derby, but it was alienated
at the latter end of the sixteenth century by
William, Earl of Derby, in a gaming transaction
to William Whitmore. It almost makes one
tremble to think of those three or four bottles of
good old port under the waistcoat of an evening,
and one bottle " for the good of the house " was
a very small affair. Did the sun shine brighter
and was the zest of life keener in the days before
the era of steam ? " Now, gentlemen, please, the
coach is ready," and away they went from Neston
to Chester to join the mail-coaches which rattled
along the road at nine miles or more an hour,
including stoppages. In the coaching days Great
Neston had a population of 1486, whilst the popu-
lation of Birkenhead was but no. But the era
125
NESTON CHURCH
of steam has altered all this, and now the coach
horn is not heard —
" No more the sleepy toll-bar man
Is roused at early morn,
And turns reluctant out of bed,
With a curse on that long horn,"
but the shrill whistle of the steam-engine an-
nounces to the residents of Neston that the 9.22
is departing.
The average person will tell you that there is
nothing to be seen in Neston, and certainly there
are few antiquities, for the place grew with its
trade, and the old buildings had to give place to
new. Yet there are a few quaint houses and
byways still remaining, and the church and
churchyard are of the greatest interest.
The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary
and Saint Helen, and the entire building, with
the exception of the tower, was rebuilt of red
sandstone in 1874-75, an^ *s worth visiting if for
no other reason than to see the four beautiful
Burne-Jones windows which, for soberness of
colouring, yet in certain lights glowing with
brilliant hues, seem to be the very perfection of
composition. The names of Burne-Jones and
William Morris are associated with the work,
for the artist's designs were carried out by work-
men under the watchful care of William Morris.
In the north aisle the window in memory of
David Russell, M.D., contains three full-length
126
THE BURNE-JONES WINDOWS
figures of Enoch, David, and Elijah, and beside
it, in memory of Reginald Bushell, is a very
finely designed window containing figures of St.
Paul and St. Thomas ; beside it again is one in
memory of J. G. Churton ; and in the south aisle
is perhaps the loveliest window of all, in memory
of Christopher Bushell. It is filled by two large
figures emblematic of Justice and Humility, and
is one of the most perfect designs ever executed
by Sir Edward Burne-Jones.
Several of the remaining windows from de-
signs by Kemp are worthy of note, particularly
two in the south aisle, and the east window is
filled with richly stained glass.
At the west end is a finely wrought iron gate-
way inscribed " In deo spes mea. In memory of
Reginald Bushell, born August 18, 1842, died
November n, 1904." There is a brass on the
wall of the north aisle to the memory of the late
Vicar, William Fergusson Barrett, M.A., who
died almost before he had reached the afternoon
of life. On the brass is engraved Chaucer's
lines —
" But Cristes love and his Apostles twelve
He taught, and first he followed it himselve."
The font, which at one time was discarded and
placed outside the church exposed to the weather
to make room for one of more modern design,
has now been restored to its proper position, and
is a very interesting and elegant piece of work-
127
LONGEVITY
manship, executed, perhaps, five hundred years
ago, each side of the basin being decorated with
quatrefoils and other early fifteenth-century orna-
ments. Placed beside the font are several ancient
stones, probably of Saxon origin, which were
disinterred from beneath the walls when the
church was restored.
The churchyard is interesting, and contains a
sun-dial, and many of the tombs are a bright
commentary on the healthfulness of the neigh-
bourhood. On one tombstone is cut, " John
Duncan, died Feb. 26, 1885, aged one hundred
years." Another is to the memory of "John
Hancock of Ledsham (d. 1775), aged 112."
In the main street is a drinking fountain
erected to the memory of Christopher Bushell,
and dated 1882.
Passing along the Parkgate Road there are
some nice old-fashioned houses, one of which
carries the date 1727, and in a short walk you
enter Parkgate.
William Webb writes in the seventeenth cen-
tury: "And next neighbour to this is the well-
known town, parish church, and port of Great
Neston : and the usual place where our passengers
into Ireland do so often lie waiting the leisure
of the winds, which makes many people better
acquainted with this place than they desire to be,
though there be wanting no convenient entertain-
ment, if no other wants lie in the way : and here
128
PARKGATE
is the station of the ships called The New Key,
where they embark and disembark both men,
horses, kine, and all other commodities on the
back of this Neston."
Consult the very latest and most expensive
gazetteer, and you will still find Parkgate de-
scribed as a "bathing-place," which all goes to
show how hard it is to destroy an old and excel-
lent reputation. There are no bathing vans there
now, although Parkgate has still a season "of
sorts," but, generally speaking, you might run
your guns down on to the front, and after re-
questing the few fishermen, always to be found
on the sea-wall with nothing particular to do, to
remove for a moment on to the sands, open fire
along " the front " without committing any serious
damage, for " All on one side like Parkgate " is
a perfectly true saying, and "the parade" ends
in the fields.
But still Parkgate is a likeable, healthful place,
and a neighbourhood which is being found out as
a residential quarter, for the views it commands
of Wales and the Welsh mountains are excellent,
and the prevailing winds, being north-west, come
to it full of sweet, refreshing, health-giving ozone.
Yes, even when the tide is at the full ebb, and
the long dreary stretch of sands, across which it
seems almost possible to walk into Wales, stretch
themselves out as far as the eye can reach, it
remains a pleasing prospect, for by turning a few
129 i
A SPLENDID LUNCH
degrees to the east the eye may refresh itself
with green fields full of wild-flowers, and whilst
sitting on the sea-wall you may hear the call of
the corn-crakes.
Yet, in spite of its many attractions, Parkgate
has not withstood the competition of other water-
ing-places, for at one time it was the very Llan-
dudno of Wirral, and boasted large inns to which
were attached coaching establishments, at which
might be cracked a bottle of the best port over
a " fresh roast" lunch. Now they will tell you at
the inn on the front, if you arrive in late May
on a Saturday morning, " that they have nothing
cooked." Listen — don't allow them to keep you
waiting whilst they cook a lunch that will anchor
you out as solid as an anvil for the rest of
the afternoon. Ask them to give you whatever
they like, and they will bring you two dishes of
potted shrimps with a good supply of bread and
butter. Order something to drink, if not for your
own good, " for the good of the house," as our
forefathers used to say, and you have a meal
which emperors might envy.
On the front are some old houses, in some of
which once dwelt fishermen who added to their
calling the lucrative and dangerous one of smug-
gling, and in the rooms of some, huge cavities
are built in the walls in which the contraband
used to be hidden. The house occupied by Mr.
W. Mealor has a very interesting smuggler's
130
SMUGGLERS
hole, entered by taking up a piece of boarding in
one of the rooms above. It is quite ten feet
deep and of capacious storage room, but it was
difficult to judge the exact size on account of
complete darkness, the only light obtainable
being that from a few matches, which flared up
for a moment, and then but deepened the
gloom.
Smuggling in those days was a dangerous
game, for the custom-house officers were given
to shooting first and asking questions afterwards,
and the smugglers were equally severe on the
officers. In another county an officer, meeting a
smuggler, says, " Knowing he was too good a
man for me, for we had tried it out before, I shot
Daniel through the head"; and in 1749, at
Chichester, Sir Michael Forster tried seven
smugglers for the murder of two custom-house
officers, which all goes to show that however
interesting smuggling was it had its dangerous
side.
At the side of the house a passage leads to a
curious wynd in which are some ancient cottages,
a relic of old Parkgate, whilst farther along the
front, where the green fields commence, is the
curious old half-timbered watch-house, whose in-
mates used to be the terror of evil-doers.
In this cottage, too, once dwelt poor S. W.
Ryley, who, through misfortune, became a strol-
ling player. He was the author of " The Itiner-
131
A STROLLING PLAYER
ant, or Memoirs of an Actor," in nine volumes,
which, though published in London, was entirely
printed in Liverpool, the first and second series
beinor dedicated to William Roscoe, and the third
0
series to the Earl of Sefton. It is a very enter-
taining book, and forcibly points from bitter ex-
perience the miseries incident to the life of a
strolling player. In volume vi. he says : —
" I took a small cottage at Parkgate, in Cheshire,
at the annual rent of ,£5. Here I placed my
mother-in-law ; and here, thank God, she is at this
moment. My small residence stands on an emin-
ence, the base of which is washed by the return-
ing tides of the river Dee, perhaps fifty yards
from my cottage door. The Welsh mountains
on the opposite shore, six miles distant, form
an amphitheatre extending north and south, and
when the tide is in it covers an expanse of at
least twenty miles, and presents one of the finest
views imagination can conceive, comprehending
everything the artist requires to constitute the
sublime and beautiful. Thus situated — in full
view of what I have endeavoured to describe —
I am at this moment endeavouring to throw my
thoughts on paper."
Quite at the end is the site of the famous old
Boat-House inn which was taken down many
years ago, and whose fine old oak beams and
132
THE BOATHOUSE INN
fittings sold at good prices. Now, only a large
barn or two remain, on one of which can be
faintly traced " Livery Stables." The proprie-
tors of this inn used to run a four-in-hand coach
daily to and from Birkenhead, as well as special
coaches to Hooton. In front used to be the
bathing vans, numbering thirteen or fourteen, and
a stand of thirty or more donkeys. A pair of
grey donkeys used to excite special admiration,
for they were neatly harnessed in a smart little
carriage, which held four ladies, besides the
driver, and the "bloods" would invariably hire
this carriage and drive about "as though they
had bought the freehold/'
Evidence of the importance of Parkgate may
be gauged from some of the old road books, and
in " Pater son's Roads," i8th edition, edited by
Mogg, published without a date, but with the pre-
face dated 1829, is the following : —
" Parkgate has lately been much resorted to by
the gay and fashionable world, during the season,
for the pleasure of bathing ; it consists, for the
most part, of a long range of good modern brick
buildings, situated on the banks of the Dee. This
place is also noted as a station from whence packets
sail for Ireland, which they do generally four
times in a week. The inhabitants of Parkgate
are numerous, and may almost be said to derive
their support from the expenditure of visitors.
133
WILLIAM DANIELL, R.A.
" At Parkgate passengers frequently take ship-
ping for Dublin, distance by water about 120
miles ; the distance from Holyhead to Dublin is
not more than 60 miles ; but the traveller who
takes shipping at Parkgate saves the land travel-
ling through Wales from Chester to Holy-
head."
William Daniell, R.A., in his large and beauti-
fully illustrated book, entitled " A Voyage Round
Great Britain," undertaken in the summer of
1813, crossed over in a packet from Wales, and,
landing at Parkgate, describes the coast view,
adding : —
" It is somewhat enlivened, however, an English-
man may be proud to say, by the little town of
Parkgate, whose single row of houses, gaily
dressed in whitewash and red ochre, may be
seen and admired from afar. We landed again
in our native land at this place, and in our walk
from the boat to the inn had an opportunity of
seeing all that it holds out to the curiosity and
amusement of a stranger. It was built solely for
bathers, but has the misfortune to be in the worst
situation that could be desired for their accom-
modation. We are generally content in these
kinds of establishments to give up all other con-
veniences for the sake of salt water, but here that
is given up too for two-thirds of a day, and in
134
WILLIAM DANIELL, R.A.
exchange for it one has the satisfaction of seeing
from every window of his house a dismal waste
of sand, and that too, so soft and so intersected by
deep furrows, that it is not passable with comfort or
safety by man or horse. One may reckon, indeed,
with certainty on a dip every day, but it is exceed-
ingly annoying to be remodelling your engage-
ments and inclinations according to irregularity of
the tide's attendance. The condition of visitors at
low water is truly deplorable, but having lingered
through the full penance of the ebb tide, their
spirits rise with the flood, and at high water there
is a general burst of business and animation. We
arrived at just such a juncture, when the beach
was all alive, and discovered a spectacle which a
foreigner might have moralised upon with more
seriousness than we of this free country can be
permitted to do. Few of either sex thought it
necessary to hide themselves under the awnings
of bathing machines : posts with ropes fastened to
them are fixed in the sands, and these were taken
possession of by numerous groups of women, six
or seven in a row, jumping, shouting, laughing
and screaming, evidently as careless of being seen
as of being drowned.
"He would be a fool or worse who accused
them of any intentional indelicacy, but I do think
it would be as well were they not to despise bath-
ing machines, for the few plain reasons that
induce so many to use them."
135
MRS. DELANY'S LETTERS
Oh ! poor William Daniell, why didn't you turn
your face to the wall and swear you'did not see ? I
am profoundly thankful that you did not walk with
me through rural Japan, because there they bathe
just as they used to at Parkgate, only the bathing
dress is absent as well as the bathing machine.
Many interesting people visited Parkgate, and
if some of the books formerly belonging to the
inns could be found, and gone through, they
would reveal names of great interest, for all going
to and from Ireland were at times delayed by
weather.
Certainly Mrs. Delany, whose father succeeded
to the title of Lord Lansdowne, and was the friend
and patron of numerous literary men and women
of his day, stayed there. She, as her letters show,
lived in the centre of a literary circle and painted
well, besides writing delightful letters. Writing
from Parkgate she says : —
" We have good reason to think we shall sail
this evening. The wind is turning about and is
very temperate and pleasant, and we have secured
our passage in the yacht. She is a charming,
clean, new ship, and reckoned the best sailer on
the coast. The Dean went on board of her
yesterday to fix the best accommodation he
could, and had we not come to Parkgate as we
did, we should not have found room. People
come every day, and the place is crowded.
136
A FRIEND OF MILTON
Sally is amazed at the sea, but is not at all
frightened. Yesterday morning we walked to
a neighbouring village called Nessan, to visit the
minister, Mr. Mapletop, his wife, and daughters."
There is a picture — had she not come to Park-
gate when she did the place could not have held
her for the night. Now, during most months you
may stroll into the place a lonely Crusoe of the
fields, and eight out of ten of the men you meet
are fishermen — for the fishery is still good, and
yields salmon, soles, and all kinds of flat fish.
The charge for a salmon licence for a pull net is
^5, and for a swim net ^15.
But if the bucks from London tarried at Park-
gate, and gave the watch an anxious time, there
also came women trembling and waiting for the
packets aboard which were their loved ones, who
had set out from Ireland. Day after day they
waited for the overdue vessels ; becoming at last
uneasy, then anxious, and at length abandoning
all hope, set out for home, knowing the sea would
never give them back their dead.
Poor Edward King, the friend of Milton and
younger son of Sir John King, perished miser-
ably by shipwreck on his way from Ireland to
Parkgate in 1637. He was a brilliant scholar,
and his death was bitterly felt by Milton, who
has commemorated it in one of the most exquisite
poems in our language, of which Tennyson said
137
THEOPHILUS GIBBER
to Fitzgerald, " It is the touchstone of poetic
taste."
" For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,
Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.
Who would not sing for Lycidas ? he knew
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.
He must not float upon his watery bier
Unwept, and welter to the parching wind,
Without the meed of some melodious tear."
And poor, ever-in-debt Theophilus Gibber,
the actor and playwright, perished in a similar
manner in the eighteenth century. He was the
son of the famous Colley Gibber, and lived the
life of a prodigal whenever he chanced to be out
of prison for debt, and could raise a little money,
and escape his duns. If the poor fellow had
reached Parkgate, as like as not he would have
proceeded to the best inn and ordered shrimps
for breakfast and soles for supper, with some-
thing to wash it down, and very possibly have
been unable to pay the score next morning.
In the Gentleman s Magazine appears the fol-
lowing : "Sept. 14, 1806. The King George
packet of and from Parkgate for Dublin was lost
this night near Hoyle Bank, and it is said all on
board except three or four perished. She had
upwards of one hundred passengers, but only
four cabin passengers."
Then comes the recollection of Charles Kings-
ley, at one time Canon of Chester, whose poetry,
138
CHARLES KINGSLEY
like his character, is simple, manly, and straight-
forward ; and as the tide comes stealthily creeping
over the sands twisting and turning in the gullies
like a huge serpent, his verses, set to music by
Frederic Clay, ring out in the memory —
" ' O Mary, go and call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
Across the sands of Dee ; '
The western wind was wild and dank with foam,
And all alone went she.
" The western tide crept up along the sand,
And o'er and o'er the sand,
And round and round the sand,
As far as eye could see ;
The rolling mist came down and hid the land,
And never home came she.
" ' Oh ! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair, —
A tress of golden hair,
A drowned maiden's hair,
Above the nets at sea ?
Was never salmon yet that shone so fair
Among the stakes on Dee.'
"They rowed her in across the rolling foam,
The cruel, crawling foam,
The cruel, hungry foam,
To her grave beside the sea ;
But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home
Across the sands of Dee."
It is a pleasant walk from Parkgate to Raby,
which lies about three miles to the north-east,
139
RABY MERE
and after crossing the high road to Chester the
pretty lanes are entered, and you go down hill to
Raby village, a tiny little place, which, however,
can boast one of the most picturesque old inns in
Wirral, built in the Cheshire half-timber style,
with a painted sign outside, and called the Wheat
Sheaf. Probably you will refresh, and pay, and
travel on, thanking your lucky stars that you have
not to sleep there ; but there was a time when to
sleep under that roof would have been counted a
great luxury, and many a tired traveller in those
far-off days has drawn his breath more easily on
beholding its lights, knowing that inside he would
find supper and a hearty welcome. It was pro-
bably built early in the seventeenth century.
Go still down the hill, and presently you will
find yourself in the neighbourhood of the tea-
houses, and below you is the celebrated Raby
Mere — that resort of happy lovers and enthusi-
astic photographers. It is a large sheet of water,
and the woods come down to its brink on three
sides. On the fourth is generally found some
youthful Walton busily angling.
Here you may rest and take your tea in the
garden of a cottage among pretty old-fashioned
flowers, and at the end of May there is a splendid
show of hawthorns and wild hyacinths, which
glimmer through the woods in almost a haze of
blue, for all the way to Bromborough there are
pretty copse woods and trees of larger growth.
140
\ivl
DIBBENSDALE
If it is at the end of May do not go over the
fields to Bromborough, but go down and pass
over the picturesque bridge at Dibbensdale, and
a little above the bridge, on either side of the
road, you will find a remarkable display of wild
hyacinths, with here and there a growth of
campion flaming out of the blue.
Once past the Marfords you are quickly at
Bromborough rail way -station, or if you are not
too tired you can go on to Bromborough village,
cross the fields, and pass through the Eastham
woods to Eastham Ferry, and sail down the
Mersey to Liverpool.
141
CHAPTER X
WIRRAL FOOTPATHS ASSOCIATION
IF you are not mad enough to live wretchedly in
order to die rich, leave your business to take care
of itself and walk over the fields to Heswall. But
before starting post a subscription to the Wirral
Footpaths Association, for had it not been for the
wise intervention of this Association many foot-
paths across the green fields would have been
closed to the public, and pedestrians would have
had to hammer along the hard highroads, and
to take their basting of motor dust with as much
philosophy and as moderate language as pos-
sible. As it is, the Association has made ancient
footpaths common property, and in Wirral it is pos-
sible to walk across green fields and view the cloud
of motor dust arise harmlessly in the distance.
" A man never rises so high," said Oliver
Cromwell, " as when he knows not whither he is
going," and so one fine May morning I set out
for a walk, not intending to go anywhere in
particular, and in the end proved the learned
Dr. Johnson wrong, for I carried no knowledge
with me, and yet managed to bring some home.
142
PRENTON
Never walk through Birkenhead; always ride in
an electric car, or take the train, for it is a weary
way to the outskirts, and the distance is growing
steadily. In former days the town was shaken
off in the first mile or two ; now houses cling to
you for several miles, and are not shaken off even
at Prenton, which used to be far in the country.
Roads containing modern villas have sprung up
there, and even the Wirral waterworks, which
used to stand alone on the ridge, has now a road
running close to it, and a new royal red post pillar-
box at its very doors !
How changed the place is from when William
Webb visited it in the seventeenth century. He
reached Prenton " where one race of Haukenhuls
have a fine house and demesne : the present
owner thereof John Oakenhall, Esquire." Little
of interest will be found in Prenton until your
path leads you across the golf-course, and then
you will be most interested in keeping clear of
badly sliced golf-balls, for they drive over the
pathway, and a story is told of a poor pedestrian
who was walking over the links being struck on
the head by a golf-ball. He waited patiently for
the striker to arrive, and then blurted out, " Are
you aware, sir, that your ball struck me on the
head ? " and the reply that was vouchsafed to his
query was, " Oh ! did it ? Where did it bounce
to?"
But once you are across the links the country
143
AN ANCIENT ROAD
is fairly entered, and you find a curious old road
stretching out in front, consisting of roughly cut
and dressed stones, much worn with continual
tramping, for they have occupied their present
position for many centuries. It is certainly a
very interesting roadway, and meeting a man
well advanced in years coming towards Prenton
accompanied by a little girl, I asked him what
manner of road it was. I had reason to regret
my question, for I had started him on his subject.
" This," said he, evidently much surprised at my
ignorance, " is a Roman road, and was built and
travelled by the Romans in Wirral more than two
thousand years ago ; " he gave me such a string of
arguments in favour of his theory that he fairly
beat me down, and it was only after a little time
that I was able to exclaim, " But it is not men-
tioned in ' Roman Cheshire ' ! " " Not mentioned
in 'Roman Cheshire,'" he retorted; "what of that?
What do those fellows know who write books?
They don't live in the neighbourhood. Now, I've
lived in Birkenhead all my life." This was his last
and clinching argument, and I escaped. A little
farther up I inquired again from a young man,
and a pedestrian who seemed to know the country
well. "Oh!" said he, "these are called the
Monks' Stepping Stones, and they used to come
all the way from the Monks' Ferry, which is
close to the Priory at Birkenhead. They go up
to one of their old churches, the ruins of which
144
AN ANCIENT ROAD
you will find in a farm-yard farther on." The
story of the ruins of an old church in a farm-yard
put a period to the conversation, and I asked no
further questions, but walked steadily on and
examined the road. It certainly is a very ancient
roadway, and I noticed it often travelled through
low-lying land and up towards the interesting
remains of Storeton Hall, to which my footsteps
were directed. After examining it carefully for
its whole way, I came to the conclusion that
it was but natural that the people who built
Storeton Hall and administered its fine demesne
in those far-off days would also have the intel-
ligence to make a road of this sort. Then I
remembered that when I was walking through
Japan I came across a similar, and even more
ancient roadway, along which I travelled — it
makes my feet ache to think of it, for I was
wearing shoes of straw — for nearly ten miles,
and along which numerous pack ponies were
coming and going, and as it was pouring with
rain, and the ponies refused to leave the stones,
I was often pushed into the mud at either side.
So I came to the conclusion that the old Prenton
and Storeton road was neither made by the
Romans nor the monks, but by the sensible
dwellers in Prenton and Storeton in far-off days,
who were averse to tramping through the mud.
On reaching home, " Notes on the Old Halls
of Wirral," by W. Fergusson Irvine, was taken
145 K
AN ANCIENT ROAD
from the shelves, and this is what he says con-
cerning the road : —
" Our way from Prenton to Storeton lies along
an ancient lane popularly called the Monks'
Stepping Stones, also sometimes called the
Roman Road. Both names are quite mislead-
ing. That an occasional monk may have stepped
along these stones is quite probable, and there
can be little doubt that sometimes a stray Roman
may have used this very lane nearly two thousand
years ago, but it has no more right to either
name than any other lane in the neighbourhood.
These stones were probably placed in their
present position some time in the Middle Ages,
just as stones were put in any miry spot, when
the locality could afford it, in other parts of the
country. They were mainly used by the heavily
laden pack horses that carried merchandise from
village to village in the days before wheeled
traffic became possible."
Few people realise the state of the roads in
England in the seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries, when it was nearly impossible to
travel at speed in any direction, for the roads
were not roads so much as tracks. During the
Civil War some eight hundred cavalry were
taken prisoners while sticking in the mud in
Buckinghamshire; and, so late as 1768, when
146
STORETON
Arthur Young was travelling in the northern
counties of England, he describes the road be-
tween Preston and Wigan, saying : "I actually
measured ruts of four feet deep, floating with mud
after a wet summer, and between the towns I
actually passed three carts broken down in those
eighteen miles of execrable memory.".
Storeton is on a slight eminence, and stands
150 feet above sea level, so that it is situated
nearly 50 feet higher than Prenton, and was a
pleasing eminence on which to erect a dwelling,
as well as a commanding place for defensible
purposes. The surrounding land was marshy,
and even at the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury Storeton was not a place that commended
itself to Ormerod, for after stating that Storeton
is situated immediately to the south-west of Little
Bebington, he exclaims in his bitter manner :
" Both are composed of straggling huts scattered
along the edge of a bleak barren moor." No moor
now exists, for men have tilled the earth awhile,
and its place is occupied by good farm lands, which
produce excellent crops ; and so valuable is land
for agricultural purposes, that I was informed
it commands a rent of two pounds to the acre ;
and if a farm is to let, there are ten tenants
eager to take it — and this is general all over
the Hundred — although all grumble at the price.
Agricultural labourers' wages here are i8s. to
2os. per week, without a cottage.
147
STORETON HALL
The hall of the Storetons is built of the white
stone of the neighbourhood, obtained from the
adjacent quarries, and must have been a large
and fine baronial mansion in its day. Now
there is only enough remaining to make the
interested pedestrian wish there was more ; but
one pointed and ecclesiastical-looking window in
the great hall, which projects at right angles, is
particularly noticeable, and some ancient door-
ways are of great interest.
Storeton, in 1 1 20, was presented to Allan
Sylvester, and his granddaughter succeeding to
the estate, conveyed it by marriage to Alexander,
said to have been the steward of the household,
and he assumed the name of Storeton. From
the Storetons it passed by marriage to Sir
Thomas de Baunville in 1315, whose eldest
daughter Jane, or Joan, married Sir William
Stanley, who entered Wirral for the first time,
and whose descendants were destined to play so
large a part, not only in the history of Wirral,
but in the history of England.
The story of the marriage is a romantic one,
and is set out in full by the great and industrious
Ormerod. He says : "Of this marriage a curi-
ous account is given in a return to a writ of in-
quiry into the truth of ' an assertion made by one
William de Stanley that a marriage had been
contracted between him and Joan, aged 20,
eldest daughter of Philip de Baunville, deceased,
148
A ROMANTIC MARRIAGE
chief forester of the Forest of Wirral,/^r verba
de presenti^ which words were spoken in the
presence of witnesses. Their betrothal was found
on the Inq. as follows : ' That on Sunday after
the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evan-
gelist, two years ago, viz. : on the 27th Sept.
1282, Philip de Baunville, with his wife and
family, was at a banquet given by Master John
de Stanley (qy. a priest), on which occasion
Joan, suspecting that her father intended to
marry her to her step-mother's son, took means
to avoid it by repairing with William de Stanley
to Astbury Church, where they uttered the fol-
lowing mutual promise, he saying, 'Joan, I plight
thee my troth to take and hold thee as my lawful
wife until my life's end,' and she replying, ' I,
Joan, take thee, William, as my lawful husband.'
The witnesses were Adam de Hoton and Dawe
de Coupelond (Cheshire Inqs.)."
A very pretty and romantic story, and a very
happy marriage too, from which sprang many
noble and distinguished Stanleys to fill an
honourable record in history. Their great-great-
grandson married the heiress of Hooton ; his
brother, marrying the heiress of Lathom, became
the founder of the families of the Earl of Derby
and Lord Stanley of Alderley.
The extensive quarries in the neighbourhood
are well worth a visit» and have a picturesque
appearance, for they are situated on a range of
149
BRIMSTAGE HALL
hills amidst pretty pine woods. As a boy I used
to enter the quarries with some fear and trem-
bling, having learned that at one time there dwelt
in the neighbourhood a gigantic amphibian, with
a body like a newt, called a labyrinthodon, and
was once shown the prints in the rock of the
hind feet, measuring quite 8 by 5 inches.
Geologically the quarries are of the greatest
interest, and contain vast beds of the finest free-
stone, in places quarried to a depth of 130 feet.
The quarries close beside them, called Higher
Bebington quarries, situated near Higher Beb-
ington old wind-mill, yield an ample supply of
stone, which furnishes London and other places
in England with material for some of their
greatest buildings.
However, if you go over to examine the
quarries, and are interested in geology, there
will be an end to your walk, so leave them for
another occasion, and descend slightly across
the fields until Brimstage is reached, and the
inn, with the fearsome sign of " The Red Cat,"
looms up in front. Pass it, if you can, and
notice that the cottages are built on the side
of a slight ravine, and that their gardens slope
to the road. Through the village passes a small
rivulet, and on a pleasing eminence is situated
Brimstage Hall, with its ancient square stone
tower dominating the village and the immediate
neighbourhood. The tower was probably erected
150
SIR JOHN TROUTBECK
towards the end of the fourteenth century, and
in many ways is one of the most interesting and
picturesque buildings in Cheshire. It was for
many years the residence of the ancient family
of Domvilles, passing from them to the Trout-
becks by the marriage, in 1440, of Sir John
Troutbeck to Margaret Hulse, who brought to
him the estates of the Hulses, Rabys, and
Domvilles.
Brimstage has ever a special attraction for
those interested in history, and it is impossible
to visit it without being reminded of the Wars
of the Roses, and especially of the battle of
Blore Heath, for Sir John Troutbeck fell in that
savage fight, which was also a fatal day for many
Cheshire families.
Blore Heath is about a mile from Market Dray-
ton, and the battle was fought in 1459 between
the Yorkists, under the Earl of Salisbury, and
the Lancastrians, under Lord Audley. Audley's
superior force, consisting of ten thousand men,
should have insured him a victory over the
inferior forces who were under Salisbury's com-
mand, but the Earl made up for lack of numbers
by cunning and astute generalship. Placing his
men in ambuscade he waited until the Lancas-
trians were re-forming after crossing a rivulet,
and then charged down with such violence and
suddenness that he threw them into hopeless
confusion, and after a bloody battle succeeded
DRAYTON'S POLYOLBION
in slaying Lord Audley and over two thousand
of his followers. Among the dead lay the owner
of Brimstage Hall, with his face to the enemy
and his wounds all in front, you may be sure.
Drayton, in his " Polyolbion," describes men
of the same name and county fighting against
one another at Blore Heath ; and his lines, whether
they represent, or misrepresent, the attitude of
the men of Cheshire, are interesting : —
" There Button Button kills : a Done doth kill a Done,
A Booth a Booth : and Leigh by Leigh is overthrowne :
A Venables against a Venables doth stand :
And Troutbeck fighteth with a Troutbeck hand to hand :
Then Molyneux doth make a Molyneux to die,
And Egerton the strength of Egerton doth trie.
O Cheshire, wert thou mad, of thine own native gore
So much untill this day thou never shedd'st before ;
Above two thousand men upon the earth were throwne,
Of which the greatest part were naturally thine owne."
Drayton published the first part of the " Poly-
olbion" in 1612, and the second in 1622, and
together they form a description of England,
both parts being filled with antiquarian details
and allusions to remarkable events and persons.
He had a bright fancy, and his melodious verse
contains much information ; those two great and
learned writers, Wood and Hearne, not being
afraid to accept his statements, nor to quote him
as an authority.
Brimstage Hall is now a large farm, the farm-
152
BRIMSTAGE SMITHY
house having been built on to, and incorporated
with, the ancient tower. Large outbuildings have
been added, and much good and useful stock is
in and about the large farm-yard ; the demesne
is particularly well kept, and wears the air of
being well farmed.
I own to have a particular regard for a village
blacksmith, and have ever gained much useful
information from men " who have never fed
of the dainties that are bred in a book," and
at times hesitate near their forges as a bee
hesitates near a particular flower, having long
been of the opinion that it is a poor man who
cannot stand a little smithy smoke ; and although
the smithy down in the village is not " under
a spreading chestnut-tree," it is surrounded by
trees, and opposite, in late May, are to be found
two chestnut-trees in flower, one white, and the
other red, whilst the village is full of pretty
flowering shrubs.
Brimstage is known in Tranmere as " the three
mile limit," for crossing the fields from Tranmere
and passing through Higher Bebington, and over
the fields to Brimstage, entitles you to be called
by the high sounding name of " A Traveller,"
and you can demand reasonable refreshment at
closed hours. A country man who gave me
this information said, "I'm fond of a glass of
beer myself, but I'd be damned if I'd walk three
miles for it." So I jotted this information down,
153
GAYTON
believing as I do that hei only is a true sage
who learns from all the world.
From Brimstage go still over the fields to
the vicinity of Thornton Hough, and if you
go to that village, in which is a modern church,
you will find the walk pretty enough. But it
is best to keep to the fields until the Chester
high road is reached, and go down to Gayton,
after noticing that Gayton Mill, whose sails once
spun merrily, is a desolate ruin, and that a new
industry in catering for cyclists has sprung up
at the Glegg Arms.
Without going too far back into the history
of Gayton it must suffice that, like other old and
interesting families, the Gleggs had to bless a
woman for their inheritance. In Wirral there
always seems to have been an heiress handy
for a young blood to marry, so Gilbert Glegg
married Joan, the eldest daughter and heiress
of John de Merton, in 1330, and the estates
passed into the Glegg family.
In the period of the Wars of the Roses Thomas
Glegg took sides with the house of York, and
he and one John Glegg joined Henry Brom-
borough who, together with some other ardent
spirits, seized stores and money at Gayton, which
were going to King Henry, to the then enor-
mous value of twenty thousand marks, for which
pretty business a warrant was out against them,
and William Stanley and others put a period to
GAYTON HALL
their activity by arresting them and lodging
them safely in Chester Castle. The Gleggs,
however, had chosen the right side, and on the
2nd of March 1461 that bold and active youth
with princely bearing, Edward IV., then only
in his nineteenth year, was proclaimed King of
England, and the Gleggs received their pardon.
Gayton Hall is situated a little south-west of
Heswall, standing amidst its pretty, old-fashioned
gardens, screened in all directions from the public
eye by the large and handsome trees which com-
pletely surround it, sheltering it from the winds
that sweep up the broad estuary of the Dee, and
insuring the inmates of the house a privacy they
would not otherwise enjoy, for Heswall has spread
itself out to their park walls.
It is a substantial house which has been altered
at various periods, whilst a complete mantling of
ivy and two very ancient trees in close proximity
to the house, called William and Mary, add much
to its picturesque appearance. In the days when
Parkgate and Dawpool were the favourite places
for embarkation from England to Ireland, the
Glegg family showed the greatest hospitality, and
many interesting travellers were entertained there.
In 1689 that great King, William III., whose
wisdom and prudence could almost turn defeats
into victories, slept beneath its roof, and the next
morning conferred the honour of knighthood upon
his host, William Glegg.
155
AN ANCIENT DOVE-COT
Mr. Fergusson Irvine, in his interesting " Notes
on the Old Halls of Wirral," says : "In the grounds
of Gayton Hall still stands one of the two remain-
ing columbaria or dove-cots in the Hundred of
Wirral, bearing the date 1663. The other is at
Puddington Old Hall. The privilege of pos-
sessing a dove-cot was very highly prized in the
Middle Ages, and was one of the many causes of
discontent among the peasantry. The sole right
of keeping pigeons vested usually in the lord of
the manor, and he exercised it to the full, often
keeping thousands of birds, which wrought sad
havoc among the crops of his tenantry."
156
CHAPTER XI
HESWALL
AND now, to quote old William Webb : " Our next
move is to Heswall, or Hesselwall, a town where
stands the parish church and parsonage finely
situated, and there extends to it a fair lordship
of Thornton Mayow and Raby, another very
pleasant view of a large precinct."
Heswall in William Webb's day was termed a
town, but forty years ago it was a picturesque
village on the banks of the Dee, and the hills
were unenclosed land over which the visitor could
roam at his sweet will amidst a wealth of heather
and gorse, and the picturesque cottages situated
on the sides of its steep hills ended in the village.
Now it is served by two systems of railways, and
has become a residential quarter for people en-
gaged in business in Liverpool, Birkenhead, and
Chester. In 1801 the population was 168; in
181 1, 323 ; in 1821 it had diminished to 233, and
in 1831 it had grown again to 296, whilst to-day
it is well over 2000. Many excellent modern and
picturesque houses have been built, for it is high
ground standing between two rivers, whose wide
157
HESWALL CHURCH
estuaries ensure it a healthful situation, one of
the summits rising to 300 feet above the sea
level. The church is situated in the village, and
its churchyard commands one of the noblest
views in Wirral over and up and down the Dee.
The pleasant walk over the fields through the
churchyard to the shore which bathers used
to follow in the early seventies of last century,
picking their way in fear and trembling across a
field which held a large and fierce bull — is dis-
used, and a Macadam road runs down to the
shore, by which some houses have been built ;
and a field on the brink of the shore now holds
swing-boats. " To what base uses we may
return, Horatio!" But little need be seen of
the swing-boats, and Heswall still wears an air
of rurality, for cottages in the village remain with
thatched roofs, which are neat and tidily kept,
whilst the swallows congregate there as of yore.
The church is interesting and is dedicated to
St. Peter and St. Joseph, the tower alone having
withstood the ravages of time, for the body of
the church was nearly totally destroyed in 1875,
when a great thunderbolt burst over it during
evensong, killing the organist and the boy who
was blowing the bellows.
The church, with the exception of the tower,
has been rebuilt, and contains eleven beautiful
stained-glass windows by Kemp. One window
at the west end of the church, beneath the tower,
158
HESWALL CHURCH
where are also the Glegg monuments, is very
beautiful, containing three lights, in which are
full-length figures of St. Augustine, St. John the
Baptist, and St. Ethelbert, whilst beneath is
"Giving thanks to God for the dear memory
of Mary Adeline Brocklebank, eldest child of
Thomas and Mary Petrena Brocklebank, who
was born 2Oth January 1868, and fell asleep 2nd
May 1888, this window is dedicated." Another
beautiful window of two lights is that to the
memory of Henry Royds, containing full-length
figures of St. Michael and St. George, and the
great east window of five lights is to the memory
of the Rev. Mark Coxon, vicar, and was erected
by his family. At the east end is a small chapel
containing three beautiful windows, soberly and
delicately coloured, erected by Thomas and Mary
Petrena Brocklebank, calling to memory those
noble words of comfort —
" He giveth His beloved sleep."
I had some talk with a farm labourer close to
Heswall, and was informed that in this neighbour-
hood land commanded a rent of two pounds to
the acre, and that his weekly wages were 205.
including a nice cottage, to which was attached
a good and well-cultivated kitchen garden. Once
he had worked for some builders in the neigh-
bourhood, and for a short period had earned as
much as 303. per week, and that was the most
159
OLDFIELD
money he had ever earned at one time. He had
brought up a family, and placed them out in the
world in better positions than he enjoys himself,
and had no wish to leave the country for the
town, although employment had several times
been offered him in Liverpool at much higher
wages than he received in Heswall ; but, all things
considered, he appeared to be as well off as he
would have been in Liverpool if receiving 283.
per week.
He was a very intelligent man, and a great
trampling fellow, standing fully six feet, appearing
satisfied with his position and lot in life, and in
good case, altogether an excellent specimen of
"A bold peasantry their country's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied."
From Heswall it is a very pleasant short walk
over the fields to Thurstaston, pausing on the
way to see the old hall at Oldfield, now two farm-
houses, and of little interest except as being the
house to which Sir Rowland Stanley of Hooton
retired in his extreme old age, and where he died
in 1614. Below the pathway the land slopes
pleasantly to the Dee, the hedgerows being
interesting to the botanist, and whilst you have
the land birds about you in the fields and hedges,
you may look over the sands of Dee, and watch
the interesting sea-birds slowly retreating as they
feed before the incoming tide.
1 60
THURSTASTON
Thurstaston has altered much in appearance
during the last three decades, for the joint owners
of the common land obtained an order for enclosure,
and the old road across the hill has been dis-
continued, and a new one made higher up, passing
above the grounds of Dawpool Hall, a mansion
erected from designs by R. Norman Shaw, R.A.
In the entrance hall, over a carved stone fire-
place, is this inscription, " This house was built by
Thomas Henry Ismay, and Margaret his wife, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and eighty-four, the year of their silver wedding
— Deus dedit — Dabit porro"
The summit of the hill, together with 60 or
70 acres of land, mostly covered with heather
and gorse, delightful and fragrant in the early
spring and late summer, was wisely acquired by
the Birkenhead Corporation, and now forms one
of the pleasantest and highest recreation grounds
in the district, and it is pleasant to notice how
readily the citizens of the neighbouring towns
forgather there on holidays and in the quiet of
the summer evenings. The hill rises 300 feet
above sea-level, and commands excellent views
of the two estuaries, the Mersey and the Dee,
also of the greater part of the Wirral peninsula.
The late Sir James Picton took the greatest
interest in Thurstaston, and had certain theories
concerning it, and the origin of its name, with
which we need not necessarily concern ourselves,
161 L
THOR'S STONE
but he describes the place so well that he has
made it unnecessary for other pens to strive to
emulate his. He says : "In a secluded part of
the common there is a natural amphitheatre of
4 or 5 acres, surrounded by sloping banks, bril-
liant in the autumn with the rich purple and
crimson tint of the heather and ling. In the
centre of this area rises a huge isolated rock of
red sandstone, about 50 feet in length, 30 feet
wide, and 25 feet high. The shape is rectangular
with some slight irregularities. The sides are
scarped down nearly perpendicular in two stages.
A path running along the ledge leads to the
summit. The flat portion of the summit and
parts of the sides, where grass and shrubs have
not found a-lodgment, are covered with initials
and ' graffiti ' of successive generations of visitors.
It is not a boulder, but part of the bunter red
sandstone which underlies the whole neighbour-
hood. Standing thus isolated, it forms a very
remarkable object. How far its original shape
has been modified it is impossible to say, but
human labour has been largely expended upon
it. The sandstone in the locality is nowhere
else found in a similar form and position." He
then concludes that on this stone the Danes made
sacrifices in honour of Thor, or the sun, and
would have us believe that fat oxen were sacri-
ficed here, aye, and even that the blood of human
victims may once have reddened the stone.
162
THURSTASTON HALL
Many people do not agree with these conclusions,
and whilst ready to admit that the Norsemen
were at Thurstaston, and also the Norse origin
of the name, they do not consider the remarkable
stone a relic of heathendom.
Thurstaston Hall was for centuries the resi-
dence of the Whitmores, who were residing there
when William Webb visited the place, for he
says : " And we come thence to Thurstanton, the
ancient seat of the Whitmores of Thurstanton,
the owner now — Whitmore, Esquire : which race
whether they had their beginning from the city
of Chester, their own evidence, wherewithal I
am not acquainted, can better declare it than I
can." The Whitmores held possession until 1751,
leaving six daughters co-heiresses to the property,
and in 1816 the estate was divided into twenty-
four equal shares with the natural result that a
suit at law followed.
Thurstaston Hall is a stone and brick building
of various periods, a portion having the appear-
ance of having once been a chapel with a door
into the hall. The great hall is entered directly
through two large and well-preserved oak doors,
strengthened with interesting old ironwork, and
which still swing smoothly on their massive
hinges. The hall is a large chamber, entirely
panelled with old oak, which, over the fireplace,
is elaborately and beautifully carved, culminating
in six curious and well-preserved figures, each
163
HUGH LUPUS
standing about 1 3 inches high ; and in a niche
on the stairs is a full-length, nearly life-size,
wooden figure representing a man clad in armour
holding a staff of office in the left hand. For
several centuries this figure has been said to
be a representation of the great Hugh Lupus,
Earl of Chester, who, as Viscount Avranches,
contributed sixty ships to the invasion of Eng-
land by the Conqueror, from whom he received
the Earldom of Chester in 1071, together
"with land in twenty shires." He carried on a
furious war with the Welsh, gaining the name
of Lupus (the wolf), endowed the monastery of
St. Werburgh, Chester, and died in the year 1 101.
Thurstaston was granted at the conquest to
Robert de Rodelent, the friend and general-in-
chief of Hugh Lupus, so that it seems not un-
natural that a statue of the great Earl should be
preserved here.
The oak work throughout the building is well
preserved, and one room, said to be haunted, is
very interesting, the roof being supported by
large polished oak beams. Serious attention
need not, however, be given 'to the ghost story
told in connection with it. The following dates
appear on the building — on the western gable,
" 1680"; and on one of the handsome old gate-
posts, "I. W. 1733."
The church is an entirely modern one, and
occupies a site close to the church built in 1824,
164
THOMAS HENRY ISMAY
which again replaced a church which stood within
the courtyard of the hall. Several of the
stained-glass windows are very beautiful, and the
organ, the gift of the daughters of the late T. H.
Ismay, Esq., to whose memory it is erected, con-
tains painted wings in the early Italian style.
The tower of the church, built in 1824, remains
standing in the churchyard, and close to it is a
grave of the deepest interest to all connected
with Liverpool. On an altar tomb is deeply cut
" Sacred to the memory of Thomas Henry Ismay,
who died fully trusting in God's Mercy on Nov.
23> J899, in the 63rd year of his age. Great
thoughts, great feelings, came to him like instincts
unawares. Also of his wife, Margaret Ismay,
who passed away in the same trust on April 9,
1907, in the yoth year of her age. Blessed are
the pure in heart for they shall see God " ; and
within a wreath of laurels : "In loving memory
of Margaret Alice. Born March 22, 1869. Died
August n, 1901. Wife of James Ismay. 'Verily
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto me.' '
" Men fear death as children fear to go into
the dark," exclaimed Lord Bacon, but here in
the cold tomb lies one who looked death steadily
in the face, and without a murmur, met his un-
timely death before he had fully reached the even-
ing of his life, believing with Lord Bacon "that it
165
THOMAS HENRY ISMAY
is as natural to die as to be born," and trusting in
God's mercy. The motto of the ancient West-
moreland family from which he sprang was, " Be
mindful," and never was a motto better lived up
to, nor more characteristic of the man.
Most of the great oceans have seen his flag,
and he has left to Liverpool if not his own mantle
of inspiration, at least an example to "be mind-
ful," and as I turn away from the tomb of this
great man a verse of the hymn he loved so
well, and quoted so often, comes crowding into
memory —
" Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away ;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day."
It is a pleasant passage over the fields to Irby.
A very pretty village, in which are several
picturesque old farm-houses, with many good
and well-farmed acres attaching to them, where
is also " The Anchor Inn," with its picturesque
sign of a great golden anchor swinging above
the entrance.
Irby Hall, though considerably altered, still
retains much of its ancient form and semblance,
and is the most picturesque building in northern
Wirral, carrying the mind back to ancient times.
It is surrounded by a deep moat, very distinctly
traceable, and within the moat once stood the
ancient manor-house of the abbey. The western
1 66
IRBY HALL
mound is unusually high, and the place was of
necessity of great strength, because the Welsh-
men easily crossed the Dee, on plunder bent,
the monks having to protect their grange, or
stores, with the strongest works.
Irby Hall, though now a farm, was long the
residence of a branch of the Glegg family, and is
built in the usual half-timbered style of the period,
standing embosomed in trees of a large growth.
The place did not escape the watchful eye of
William Webb, who says, "And near unto this
lies Irby, another fair lordship wherein the Balls,
freeholders, have a good seat." It is a good seat
still, and it is hoped will long remain in its well-
kept and interesting condition, so that time will
not be allowed to work its decay, nor fill up the
large and deep moat.
From Irby the road goes to the north down
to the village of Greasby, where are several
most picturesque old farm-houses, among them
Greasby Hall, with an interesting porch and
a large iron-studded door. The Monks of St.
Werburgh, on obtaining possession of the whole
manor, claimed here, as in their other manors,
41 the privileges stated in their plea to the writ of
quo warranto, 31 Edw. III., namely, infangtheof,
wayf, stray, goods of natives, felons and fugitives,
and view of frank pledge, at their manor-house
of Irreby."
Leaving Greasby and passing through Wood-
167
LANDICAN
church, which we revisit and describe in our next
walk, Arrowe Hall is passed, a large mansion,
formerly the seat of John R. Shaw, Esq., and
passing south for a short distance along the
Chester road, a path will be found on the left
going over the meadows to Landican. Here are
a few farm-houses, but the place is not so attrac-
tive as is its name. It is, however, a progressive
little hamlet, for in 1801 the population was but
forty-five, and in 1811 forty-seven. By 1821 it
had grown to fifty-three, in 1831 to sixty-one,
whilst in 1901 it reached seventy-one, which all
goes to show that there are some places in Wirral
where they have a fear of lazy families and not
of large ones.
That they had faith in early marriages is shown
by an extract from an old will of Ralph Axon, of
Landican, which says : " My Will is that John
Smith shall marry my daughter Ann Axon when
he cometh of the age of fifteen yeres, but if he
refuse to marry her, then let him pay her the sum
of one hundred marks and my wife shall make it
one hundred pounds, but if my daughter refuse
him, then it to be but one hundred marks."
In a short distance from Landican the path
over the fields climbs steadily to Oxton.
168
CHAPTER XII
OXTON
HAS Oxton changed extraordinarily of late years
in other ways besides in population, or was
Ormerod in a vexatious mood when he wrote
in 1816 : "The village of Oxton is mean and
small, composed of wretched, straggling huts,
amongst roads only not impassable. The town-
ship occupies an eminence which commands a
full view of the buildings and shipping of Liver-
pool, exhibiting a picture resembling metropolitan
bustle and splendour almost immediately below
the eye ; but no degree of civilisation or improve-
ment has reached this part of the opposite shore,
which is a scene of solitude broken in upon only
with the voice of the cowherd or the cry of the
plover. Bleak and barren moors stretch round
it in every direction, and exhibit an unmixed
scene of poverty and desolation."
Now you may stand on Bidston Road close to
St. Saviour's Church surrounded by large and
pleasant dwellings, whilst before you to the west
and south is a fair tract of land sloping to Wood-
church, and nearly everywhere are evidences of
169
WOODCHURCH
prosperity. If Ormerod did not write bitterly
then Wirral has changed inordinately, not only
in population, but in the character of the in-
habitants, for east, west, north, and south
outside the town I have met with some poor
people, but with no squalid poverty, and the
country children have worn a particularly well-
cared-for and " mothered " look.
That the houses and roads have changed
greatly since Ormerod's day is certain, and is
a welcome sign of progress. The price of land
in Oxton used to be so much per acre. Now if
you desire to buy any they will quote it to you
per yard.
Avoid the roads, and go over the fields to
Woodchurch. Here again you will find the
place has grown, for in 1801 the population
numbered but 52. In 1811 it was 76, by 1821
it had decreased to 74, and in 1901 it was no
less than 140. But all this is by the way — the
" play's the thing," and we have journeyed here
to see the interesting church, one of the prettiest
in Wirral, and worthy a visit if but to see the
beautiful stained-glass windows by Kemp, which
give those by other hands in the same church
a gaudy appearance, quite out of keeping with
the building, with its Norman window, and the
fine old oak beams of the nave. The window in
the south aisle is truly a great piece of work, and
an enduring monument to Kemp, so sober is it
170
THE COW CHARITY
in colour, yet so rich and exquisite in design.
It is of six lights, and is to the memory of George
King. The eastern window is filled with stained
glass, some of which is ancient, having been
brought from the church of a monastery sup-
pressed at the French Revolution. Two curious
windows filled with richly stained glass are in the
porch, and are well worthy of examination. The
churchyard is interesting, and contains the base
of an ancient cross, to which has been added a
modern shaft erected to commemorate the jubilee
year of Her Majesty Queen Victoria.
A curious charity was attached to the parish,
for James Goodacre, of Barnston, gave 20 marks
in 1525 to buy 20 yoke of bullocks for the poor
of the parish, which sum was afterwards set apart
for the purchase of cows to be hired out to the
poor at 2s. 8d. per annum. The cows were
annually brought into the rectory court and
examined, and all persons convicted of miscon-
duct were excluded from the benefits of the
charity for three years.
From Woodchurch pass over the fields again,
even if it be wet and the way muddy ; it will be
found more pleasant than the road, and hark
how Ormerod describes the pretty country
through which you are passing : "A district
which appears as if it had come unfinished from
the hands of nature, and is certainly under little
obligation to the improvements of man." If that
171
UPTON
was a true description how hard must man have
worked during the last ninety years to pro-
duce this excellent land, full of good seventy or
eighty-acre farms all the way between Wood-
church and Upton.
A young farmer whom I chanced to meet told
me the farms let readily at from £2 to ^2, 123. 6d.
per acre, although he considered this latter price
far too high, yet admitted that if a farm was to
let, even before it was generally known, the land-
lord had fifty prospective tenants. Farm labourers'
wages here are i8s. to 2os. per week, in most
cases without cottages.
Upton is entered by a road into which the
footpath leads, and passes between two inns with
the high-sounding titles of the " Horse and
Jockey" and the "Eagle and Crown " standing
on either side of the road. Upton has altered
greatly of late years, and many new houses and
some shops have been built there. The church
is modern and uninteresting, and was built by
William Inman, one of the pioneers of emigration
by steamship, and replaced an earlier one, which
had replaced the earlier one of Overchurch, in
which stood the stone with the runic inscription,
which is usually translated as " the people reared
the monument pray for Athelmund." Each of
the churchyards is in a different quarter of the
village.
Behind the water- works pumping-station a path
172
BIDSTON
crosses the fields and passes below Bidston wood
to the interesting little grey village of Bidston,
which, in spite of the changes in the near neigh-
bourhood, wears still its old time-worn ancient
aspect. The pathway issues on to the high road
nearly opposite the church, which stands above
the village on a commanding ledge of grey rock,
out of which its ancient tower seems to grow.
The square embattled tower was built about 1520,
and over the western door are shields containing
the cognizances of the earls of Derby, amongst
them one containing three legs of man is dis-
tinctly traceable. The interior of the church is
not of great interest, and need not occupy much
time.
A little higher in the village is Bidston Hall,
standing in a commanding position on a rocky
ledge built of the stone of the neighbourhood : —
" And so we come to Bidston," writes William
Webb, " a goodly house demesne and park of the
right honourable William, Earl of Derby : which,
though it be less than many other seats which his
honour hath wherein to make his residence when
he is so pleased : yet for the pleasant situation of
this, and the variety of noble delights appendant
to it, his lordship seems much to affect the same,
and enlargeth the conveniences therein for his
pleasure and abode many ways, which, with crav-
ing pardon for my bold collection, I suppose his
173
BIDSTON HALL
honour doth out of his honourable love to this
our country, that we might have the more of his
presence here, where he bears the great places
of his Majesty's lord lieutenant in the causes
military, and the Prince's highness chamberlain
of the county palatine, as his noble and worthy
ancestors have done before him."
In the front is an ornamental arch through
which the hall is seen, overlooking an old-
fashioned garden, and part of " the great ston
wall " which formerly surrounded the demesne is
still standing. The property came into the family
by purchase, and descended to that able, wise,
and discreet man, Sir John Stanley, who married
Sir John Lathom's only child, and who was Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland under Richard II. He
built and fortified a house in Liverpool, and
formed a park on his Bidston estate. The hall
was probably built by William, sixth Earl of
Derby, one of the most romantic figures of the
seventeenth century. He was a younger son,
handsome, and with a love of learning beyond
his years, and the reading of the books of travel
at his command turned his mind to foreign lands,
so he visited Egypt, Syria, Jerusalem, and other,
in those days, out-of-the-way places. Whilst
he was abroad his brother died, and on his
return he had a difficulty in establishing his
identity, for he had been away for years and had
174
THE SEVENTH EARL OF DERBY
been given up as dead. Having at last estab-
lished his claim to the vast possessions of his
family, he retired in favour of his able and con-
scientious son James, Lord Strange, afterwards
seventh Earl of Derby, dying in Chester in 1642.
James was a staunch Royalist, and looked upon
Cromwell and his followers as base usurpers, but
having chosen the losing side, his was not the
spirit to desert it, and in 1649 he withdrew to the
Isle of Man, and all his vast English estates were
forfeited. He wrote a letter, which is printed
in full below, and it is impossible to look
upon one of his residences without it occur-
ring to the memory, for it is one of the bravest
and most spirited letters of the period, and will
be read with interest and respect for the character
of this staunch gentleman, even by those who
warm to Cromwell. Cromwell had written to
him through General Ireton, offering to restore
to him half of his forfeited estates if he would
give up the Isle of Man and submit. It was a
tempting offer, but the seventh Earl of Derby
was made of sterner stuff than that, and, clap-
ping his pen to paper, he sent this dignified and
stinging reply : —
" SIR, — I received your letter with indignation
and scorn, and return you this answer. That I
cannot but wonder whence you should gather
any hopes from me, that I should, like you, prove
'75
THE SEVENTH EARL OF DERBY
treacherous to my Sovereign, since you cannot
but be sensible of my former actings in his late
Majesty's service ; from which principle of loyalty,
I am in no whit departed. I scorn your proffers,
disdain your favour, and abhor your treason, and
am so far from delivering up this island to your
advantage, that I will keep it to the utmost of
my power to your destruction. Take this for your
final answer, and forbear any further solicitations ;
for if you trouble me with any more messages
on this occasion, I will burn the paper, and hang
the bearer ; this is the immutable resolution, and
shall be the undoubted practice of him, who
accounts it the chiefest glory to be, His Majesties
most loyal and obedient servant, DERBY."
"CASTLE TOWN, \2thjuly, 1649."
Learning Charles II. was advancing from
Scotland, he hastened to England to join his
monarch, and at Wigan, with but 600 horse,
bravely withstood a body of 3000 horse and foot.
He was captured later at the battle of Worcester,
and in violation of a promise of quarter given
in 1651, was beheaded in Bolton. His pathetic
letter to his three children is as touching as
anything in literature :—
" DEAR MALL, MY NED, AND BILLY, — I remem-
ber well how sad you were to part with me, but
now I fear your sorrow will be greatly increased
176
JAMES STANLEY, 7x11 EARL OF DERUY, His COUNTESS AND CHILD
THE SEVENTH EARL OF DERBY
to be informed that you can never see me more
in this world ; but I charge you all to strive
against too great a sorrow, you are all of you of
that temper that it would do you much harm ;
and my desires and prayers to God are, that you
may have a happy life ; let it be as holy a life as
you can, and as little sinful as you can avoid or
prevent. I can well now give you that counsel,
having in myself at this time so great a sense of
the vanities of my life, which fill my soul with
sorrow ; yet, I rejoice to remember that when
I have blessed God with pious devotion, it has
been most delightful to my soul, and must be my
eternal happiness. Love the Archdeacon, he
will give you good precepts : obey your mother
with cheerfulness, and grieve her not, for she is
your example, your nursery, your counsellor, your
all under God ; there never was, nor never can
be a more deserving person. I am called away,
and this is the last I shall write to you. The
Lord my God bless you and guard you from all
evil. So prays your father at this time, whose
sorrow is inexorable to part with Mall, Neddy,
and Billy. — Remember, DERBY."
Standing at the foot of the scaffold he exclaimed,
" My God, I thank Thee that I am not afraid to
go up here. There are but these few steps to my
eternity " ; and with these words he went to his
God like a soldier and a Christian gentleman.
177 M
BIDSTON HILL
His wife was the grandchild of William the
Silent, Prince of Orange, and her heroic defence
of Lathom House is well known. Seven days
before her husband's execution the gallant lady
received a summons from Captain Young, of the
President frigate, to surrender the Isle of Man,
where she commanded during the absence of her
husband. The dignified and brave reply was
that she was charged with the duty of keeping
the island by her lord's command, and that with-
out his orders she would never give it up.
Ultimately Bidston Hall and its demesne passed
into the possession of Sir Robert Vyner, a Lon-
don goldsmith and banker, in whose family it
still remains.
Pass the hall and enter the wood which clings
to the western side of Bidston Hill, and bless the
men who saved these 47 acres on the crest and
sides for the public. Many noble buildings have
been provided for the citizens of great towns, but
this, one of Nature's buildings, is perhaps the
noblest of them all, for on the summit, which
rises 200 feet above the sea, is a view which, on
a clear day, cannot be surpassed in Cheshire, of
the Welsh and Cumberland hills, and the whole
length and breadth of the Wirral peninsula.
The sails of the old mill at the south end of the
summit spun merrily until well into the sixties of
the last century. The observatory, which occu-
pies the northern end of the hill, takes an active
178
WALLASEY
part in all astronomical and meteorological
matters within the scope of its instrumental
equipment, and is a station for noting the pass-
age of earthquakes, of which numerous interest-
ing records have been published. Formerly there
were fifty-eight flagstaffs arranged along the
summit, which were used for signalling the arrival
of merchant vessels in the offing, and telescopes
were directed to the summit from the old church-
yard in Liverpool for information.
Descend through the wood, and notice the
wonderful show of rhododendron blossom if it is
early in June, and go down to Bidston Station,
past twenty new houses, which look red and raw
after the quiet little grey village, and cross over
the marsh, on which they now play golf, to
Wallasey Church.
The church was burnt down in 1857, the
ancient tower alone remaining in close proximity
to the new church built in 1859. The style of
the old tower is of the period of Henry VIII.,
and closely resembles that of Bidston, and would
appear to have been built in 1535. The parish
registers are interesting, and among the marri-
ages is chronicled that of Raphe Sampson and
Margarett Dobbe, the bridegroom being only
sixteen and the bride fourteen years of age, the
marriage taking place in 1596.
Wallasey village has lost much of its ancient
character, for the district has become a large
179
WALLASEY
residential quarter, and is wearing a very dif-
ferent aspect from that of the day when William
Webb arrived there and wrote, " In Walley, or
Walsey, a town which hath fair lands, and where
lies those fair sands, or plains, upon the shore of
the sea, which for fitness for such a purpose allure
the gentlemen and others oft to appoint great
matches, and venture no small sums in trying the
swiftness of their horses." Be sure they wagered
for no small amounts in those roaring, hard-drink-
ing days. We know that William, Earl of
Derby, lost Neston in some gaming transaction
to William Whitmore, of Leighton, and a gentle-
man of the name of Corbet, a distinguished family
near Shrewsbury, wagered that his leg was the
handsomest in the kingdom, staking immense
estates on the point, and won his bet. In the
Annual Register for 1788 twenty thousand pounds
are mentioned as being staked on a walking
match.
1 80
CHAPTER XIII
MERSEY TO DEE
" THE secret of making oneself tiresome," said Vol-
taire, " is not to know when to stop ; " but we are
very near our journey's end, having but one more
walk to accomplish along the seashore from the
Mersey to the Dee. There are not many places
in England where you can walk along the shore
of the estuary of one great river and see the
ships going down to the sea, and join another
wide estuary, where the ships are shaking the salt
sea-water from their sides and dipping between
the billows, when the wind freshens from the north-
west, as they make their way wearily to port.
There is a pleasure in being down by the path-
less sea for a whole day, for it brings with it a
feeling of freedom and aloofness that is not felt
whilst walking inland. This indeed is "no man's
land," and no Footpaths Association is needed to
keep the long seashore walk open. It is true
that no sweet-singing birds are to be heard, except
where the fields run closely by the fringe of the
shore ; but there are always the interesting sea-
birds, and in their shrill cries it is still possible to
181
NEW BRIGHTON
find a strain of wild music, whilst it is ever a
pleasure to watch them feeding on the tail of some
great sand-bank. No flowers are here, but instead
we have the sea-weeds, which, to the understand-
ing mind, are indeed "flowers of the sea."
I have heard the sea complaining on many
shores, and know what it is to see the Indian
Ocean come tossing in, and to lose myself within
the tangle of the China Seas, or to watch from a
great headland the long roll of the Pacific Ocean.
But in its way there is nothing more enjoyable
than on a fine breezy day to set off from New
Brighton, along the shore of the Mersey estuary,
and walk to the estuary of the Dee.
New Brighton has altered greatly for the worse,
and again for the better, during the past century,
and when it is now beheld with its large pier and
terrace after terrace of houses, and streets of well-
stocked shops, it seems strange that one writing
in 1830 should describe it : " Rising out of the sea
by a succession of lofty ridges it offered an induce-
ment for the erection of villas, retreating one
above another, without the view from the upper
ranges being in the slightest degree intercepted
by the houses below them." So New Brighton
became a place of residence and then fell on
degenerate days, when a huge and ugly terrace
of cheap lodging-houses was erected, and the
sands were disfigured with all kinds of cheap
shows suitable to the Chowbent cheap-tripper.
182
EDWIN WAUGH
But in these later days it has again taken its place
as a residence by the sea, and its shores are again
pleasant to walk on.
Westward, like the course of empire, let us take
our way, and New Brighton is soon left behind ;
but before we leave it let us not forget that Edwin
Waugh — the author whose writings are so full of
human nature — once resided here. He is not
so largely read as he used to be, but there was
a time when few Lancashire operatives were not
familiar with his lines, " Come whoam to the
childer an' me." It was the writer's privilege to
stand for some years on intimate terms with him,
and his good stories and lively conversation will
not readily be forgotten. The son of a Rochdale
shoemaker, he was quite self-educated, and his
village idylls, a series of stories in prose, are
charmingly written, whilst as a singer his " Poems
and Songs " have also secured for him recognition
as a poet.
Passing beneath the Red Noses, above which
Mr. Lamport, the founder of the famous shipping
firm of Messrs. Lamport & Holt, used to reside,
and whose early and tragic death caused deep
sorrow to a large circle of friends, and passing
beneath huge hills of fine sand, whose feet stand
just above high water, we are beyond the houses
and beating steadily down upon the Leasowe
embankment, at the commencement of which is
situated Leasowe Castle, now an hotel, but in
183
LEASOWE
former days an interesting house, and the seat of
Sir Edward Oust, Bart. In Ormerod's day it
was possible from the terrace of the Castle to see,
during a summer solstice, the sun rise and set in
the sea. The picture produced is from a draw-
ing by R. G. Kelly engraved by J. Godfrey.
Canute's chair is still in the grounds close to the
embankment, and on it is deeply cut, " Sea, come
not hither, nor wet the sole of my foot."
Leasowe Castle was at one time called New
Hall, which at a later date was changed to Mock
Beggar Hall, and then rose to the dignity of a
Castle, and at one period was the residence of
the Egertons of Oulton, but passed by purchase
to William Boodee, and from his widow the
Castle and estate afterwards became the pro-
perty and residence of General the Hon. Sir
Edward Cust, Bart., K.C.H., who saw active
service, and was Colonel of the i6th Lancers ;
a friend of Queen Victoria, and Master of the
Ceremonies for many years.
The Leasowe racecourse was on the low flat
land in the immediate neighbourhood, and it is
stated that one of the ancient towers of Leasowe
Castle was originally built by Ferdinando, fifth
Earl of Derby, as a stand to better his view of
the races, and also to keep his horses and hawks
in. Ormerod says : " But whatever the ostensible
reason for the erection of a structure so substan-
tial that the sea air and the storms of three
184
LEASOWE RACES
centuries, in an exposed situation, have failed to
affect it, it is more likely, perhaps, that it originated
in a desire on the part of its builder to be prepared
for any eventuality the disturbed times in which
he lived rendered probable, ... it would be
particularly serviceable to one of Lord Derby's
great possessions as a temporary place of refuge,
and of embarkation to Ireland or the Isle of Man.
The present tower seems to have been erected in
1593, if we may trust a date sculptured evidently
at that period, beneath a rudely cut figure of " the
legs of man."
Horse-racing was then in its infancy, and must
necessarily have been more or less of a local
character on account of the state of the roads and
the difficulty of travel. On February 15, 1672, a
notice was published in the London Gazette by
Charles, Earl of Derby, with many other gentle-
men in Cheshire and Lancashire, " of a five mile
course for a horse-race, near the town of Liver-
pool," which was described as "one of the finest
grounds of its length in England," and neither
the courses at Toxteth nor Melling answer this
description so well as Leasowe. In August 25,
1683, James, Duke of Monmouth, attended the
horse-races here, and "won the plate on his own
horse." After winning his race the Duke offered
to race the beaten jockey on foot, and again beat
his man. He attended the races with a great
retinue, and was received with great enthusiasm.
185
LEASOWE RACES
The first sweepstakes were established in 1723,
and were for many years called the "Wallasey
Stake." On this occasion the Dukes of Devon-
shire and Bridgewater, Lords Derby, Gower,
Molyneux, and Barrymore, Sir Richard Gros-
venor, Mr. Watkin Williams Wynne, Mr. Eger-
ton, Mr. Cholmondeley of Vale Royal, and Mr.
Buckle Mackworth engaged to subscribe twenty
guineas a year, to be run for on the course at
Wallasey on the first Thursday in May in each
year. Evidently, from the names mentioned, the
races and course here were well known and popu-
lar, and the first " Derby " is stated to have been
run in this neighbourhood. The course fell
gradually into disuse on the establishment of a
good course on the opposite side of the Mersey
at Melling, which was afterwards removed to
Aintree, where the "Grand National" is at
present an event that attracts attention in all
parts of the United Kingdom.
Standing on the .embankment now, the eye
rests on numerous villas which occupy the
meadows of former days, whilst away in the
north is the Irish Sea, and in the west the noble
view of the Snowdon range. In the foreground
is Saughall Massey, which William Webb de-
scribes "as a very gallant lordship" — why, it is
hard to guess, but, like most of the other villages
in Wirral, it has increased its population from 98
in 1801 to 186 in 1901.
1 86
LEASOWE LIGHTHOUSE
A little to the east of Saughall Massey lies
Moreton on the plains, which stretch out below
Bidston Hill. Here the Tranemores of Tran-
mere and the family of West-Kirbies held land
during the reign of Edward III.; and here is
a modern church erected in 1863 by William
Inman, the founder of the Inman Line of steam-
ships between Liverpool and New York. The
plains at Moreton are below the level of the
highest tides, and were it not for the great em-
bankment they would be under water nearly as
far as the village. Continuing along the top of
the embankment, where the surface is excellent,
the pedestrian is in a position to command the
view on either side, and if the wind is too strong
from the north-west, the prevailing quarter, or if
the eye tires of the sea, it is always possible to
descend the breakwater and proceed along a path
by its side, completely sheltered from the wind,
and to hear the water roaring, if the tide be at
the full, without seeing anything of the sea, and
to hearken to the call of the sea-birds on the sea-
side, whilst listening to the carolling of the larks
in the fields, by the side of which the path runs.
The lighthouse is not now used for nautical
purposes, having flashed its message of warning
to mariners for the last time in 1908. It is in-
teresting to know that the old lighthouse at
Leasowe, which this lighthouse replaced, was one
of the earliest built in England, under powers of
187
LEASOWE EMBANKMENT
the Act, and that the land was purchased in 1764
by the Liverpool Corporation from William Hough
for a consideration of ^42 for the twenty square
yards. The earliest lighthouses were erected as
private speculations, that on the Smalls Rock
in the Bristol Channel being built by order of
a Mr. Phillips of Liverpool, who was a Quaker.
He said he built it as "a great holy good to
serve and save humanity," and he certainly ac-
complished his object, but as he was allowed to
levy dues on passing ships it brought him in a
large annual income, and after his death Trinity
House purchased it from his family for £ 1 70,000.
The lighthouse erected on the Skerries close to
Holyhead, which was also a private speculation,
was purchased for ,£450,000.
The embankment stretches along the shore for
nearly two miles to Meols, where it is joined by a
new embankment, and also by the new road by
the sea-side, which runs along the promenade to
Hoy lake, so that pedestrians have three courses
open to them — to proceed along the shore, or on
the top of the embankment, or on the road. The
shore is exceedingly interesting at Meols, oppo-
site to the village of Great Meols, in which was
settled so far back as 1330 the ancient family of
that name. They were connected with many of
the leading families of Cheshire, and were warm
supporters of the cause of Charles I., and knew
what it was to suffer for loyalty to the throne.
188
SUBMARINE FOREST
On the shore will be noticed as Meols is
reached, and Hoylake's new breakwater stretches
to join the new embankment, a collection of tree
stumps resembling in the distance a small forest
outside a settlement where the axe of the back-
woodsman has swung to good purpose, leaving
the roots and stumps to be removed during future
years. This is the famous " Submarine Forest,"
locally known as the " Meols Stocks," and is
covered at each tide. William Webb, in 1622,
declared, " Some are of opinion that they have
lain there ever since Noah's flood." Without
committing ourselves to " Noah's flood," rest
assured that these trees once knew what it was
to feel their sap rising in the spring-time of the
year, and that where the sea now thrashes their
gaunt remains was a forest of oak and fir. The
roots still cling to the black earth, and here and
there a prostrate trunk of oak is visible. Evi-
dently there was wild work when the sea first
burst among the trees and, after tearing its way
through the forest, retreated, and again advanced
to complete its work of destruction ; and the ob-
vious conclusion is that hereabout the sea has
advanced permanently, and that the land at one
time extended seaward for a great distance, for
the remains of some of the trees are so much
below high-water :mark that, were they young
and green now, the waves would pass among
their topmost branches. Amidst the tree-stumps
189
ANCIENT TOWN OF MEOLS
hidden in the black earth objects of great interest
have been discovered, consisting for the most
part of ancient knives, cross-bow bolts, and prick
spurs, all made of copper, bronze, brass ; and a
few articles have been found made of gold,
besides numerous coins, some Roman, others
ancient British pieces.
Mr. Ecroyd Smith states that an ancient grave-
yard was discovered at extreme low water after
an unusual spell of north-easterly winds, but he
is now generally believed to have been mistaken.
Away out on the Dove Spit was probably
situated the ancient town of Meols, where, in
ancient times, the Romans listened to the roar
of the incoming tide, and near which their galleys
tossed securely at anchor, or sped away up the
Dee to Chester. And so we pass on, feeling
that the world is wider and older than most of
us consider, and indeed a great book, which, if
we could but read correctly, would raise the
curtains of the past and shed a new light on
history.
From Dove Point to Hoylake used to be a
heavy sandy walk, but now you may go on a
good road above the sands, for Hoylake has
spread itself out, and the old village is nearly lost
amidst " improvements," the famous Hoyle Lake
being nearly obliterated by the gathering sands.
Yet what a place it used to be! In Queen
Elizabeth's reign 4000 foot soldiers and 200
190
AN ARMY AT HOYLAKE
horse were quartered in the neighbourhood, and
set sail from Hilbre to put a period to the Tyrone
rebellion ; and in the spring of 1689, when word
came to England that King James had landed
in Ireland, an army under the Duke of Schom-
berg was sent against him. I like to think of
Hoy lake in those days, with the Dee crowded
with men-of-war and transports, dancing in the
then deep water off Hilbre. The army was
somewhat of a ragged crew, for the bulk
were taken from the plough, although there was
one brigade of steady Dutch troops under the
command of the Count de Solmes. Those were
trying times for the people in the neighbourhood
of Hoy lake, for be sure the soldiers of those
days were none too particular, and the officers
would sally forth bent on wine, whilst the men
were proficients in robbing a hen roost, or in
rounding up a few ducks, although the brave
Duke of Schomberg, a great and courteous
gentleman, enjoying, although full of years, a
vigorous old age, would be sure to do what he
could to keep his men in hand. At last the
Duke, with the trusted officer, Count Solmes,
general of the foot, numerous officers, and nearly
10,000 men, were got safely aboard the ships,
and embarked at the Hoyle Lake for Ireland,
leaving behind them poor John Van Zoelen, who
died on September 3rd, to be buried in West
Kirby Church.
191
DEAN DAVIES' ACCOUNT
The following summer large bodies of troops
passed through Hoylake. Listen to the account
given by Dean Davies : —
" 1690. April ibth (Saturday") we dined at our
lodgings (in Chester), and after dinner they all
grew very busy in sending their things away
to Hoylake, where lay our recruits of horse,
being 400, and the Nassau and Brandenburg
regiments.
" 27 th (Sunday). — In the morning all our sparks
were in a great hurry, the wind presenting fair.
"May $rd (Saturday). — In the afternoon I put
my trunks, bed, saddle, and hat-case on board
Mr. Thompson's boat, and sent them to Hoylake,
where they were shipped off with the Major's
things.
"May 6th (Tuesday). — In the morning we
took horse for Hoylake, and, passing by Neston,
we came there about one o'clock. At our coming
we found the commissary at the parsons at dinner
with Count Scravenmore, where we waited on
him, and got an order for a ship to carry 18
horses and 23 men. Then we dined at one
Barker's, where it cost us each two shillings,
and in the evening we went out to a farmer's
house, where Frank Burton and I lay together."
He then describes some difficulties with the
major's tumbril, and tells how he breakfasted in
192
KING WILLIAM III. AT HOYLAKE
the morning, "and paid for ourselves and horses
three shillings each," and how at last the horses
were safely shipped. " The major and I walked
a mile on the strand, and went into two islands
in the bay, and then came on board, all the rest
of our company being on board another ship
drinking : they all came to us in the evening
and we lay on board all night."
A roystering, roaring crew, depend on it, that
lay on the ship drinking and in a ferment of
jollity. I wager the farmers about Hoylake,
West Kirby, and Neston were glad to see the
ships scudding away, their sails filling and belly-
ing before the freshening gale.
But the next month was a historic one in
the annals of Hoylake and the Dee, for King
William III., who was still called in Ireland the
Prince of Orange, travelled hard from London,
and reached Chester in five days. His army
was camped on the great plains stretching from
Hoylake to Great Meols, and in the Dee awaiting
his arrival was the great and gallant Admiral Sir
Cloudesley Shovel. The King was at Chester
on the loth, where he attended divine service in
the Cathedral, and, taking boat down the Dee in
the afternoon, he slept at Gay ton Hall, knighting
his host next morning ere he sailed. Samuel
Mulleneaux, writing in 1690, says : " On Wednes-
day (Thursday), June 12, in the morning, his
majesty, accompanied with His Royal Highness
193 N
THE HOYLE LAKE
the Prince of Denmark, and several other persons
of quality, embarked at Highlake, and the same
afterwards went out to sea, but the wind waver-
ing made not much way that day." I declare I
never visit the King's Gap without in fancy
seeing the great King passing down with his
attendant retinue through the gaping crowd to
perform his appointed task. Not jogging sleep-
ingly down to the boats with a mincing gait, for
those were brisk days, and the King hated noise
and flattery. A few words of sharp command,
tramp, tramp, and away they would go down to
the King's Gap. There would be sure to be
some one wanting him to touch for the King's
evil, and as certain as he touched, he would
exclaim, as he did elsewhere, " God give thee
better health, and better sense."
Look back but one hundred and fifty years,
and it will be found that the Hoyle Lake was half
a mile wide, having 1 5 feet of water at its western,
and 30 feet at its eastern, entrance. The follow-
ing letter appeared in the Gentleman s Magazine
on June 1796, just one hundred and thirteen years
ago, and it will be noticed that in those days
the Hoyle Lake was capable of accommodating
vessels of any size then frequenting the coasts :—
" I am now writing to you, Mr. Urban, from
the extreme point of the Hundred of Wirral in
Cheshire, near the broad estuary of the Dee,
194
HOYLAKE IN 1796
and only seven miles from the confluence of the
more commercial waters of the Mersey with
the ocean. Your last Magazine has noticed
Miss Se ward's poetical address to the proprietor
of High Lake, some of the lines in which are,
indeed, not less elegant than classically descrip-
tive. The Hoyle sand breaks the force of the
waves, so as to render the lake a safe road for
vessels of any size in the roughest weather ; and
it is strictly true that ' age and infirmity may
securely plunge ' during the highest tides and
most boisterous gales, such, indeed, as we have
lately experienced for a length of time, at this
season exceedingly unusual. The hotel lately
erected by Sir John Stanley, the lord of the
manor, is situated within a few yards of the
beach, and contains a variety of commodious
apartments, both public and private, very com-
fortably furnished. The charges are very mode-
rate, the table well and amply supplied, and
nothing is wanting on the part of the persons
who have the management of it to render this
house as pleasant and convenient as can be de-
sired. Although, at the first glance, we appear
shut out from the rest of the world, a very short
time conveys us to Parkgate (the station of the
Dublin packets), across the water into Wales,
into the bustle of Liverpool, or the less busy
capital of this county. The coast of Flintshire,
richly wooded, even to the water's edge, and
195
HOYLAKE IN 1796
singularly contrasting with this naked district,
displays itself with great beauty on the other
side of the Dee ; whilst the rugged mountains
of Wales, boldly stretching out as far as Angle-
sea, form the boundary of the prospect towards
the south-west. There is a great extent of fine,
short turf along this coast, extending nearly to
the Mersey, and affording very dry and pleasant
walks and rides, as does also the sand, which
is firm and compact, and wholly destitute of
pebbles. This shore is protected by a chain of
sand-hills, held together by the star-grass or sea-
reed, whose long fibrous roots, penetrating deep
into the sands, offer a fixed point round which
they may collect. This grass is under the especial
protection of the law ; for, if it were cut and con-
verted to the uses of which it is capable, such
as making mats and besoms, the sand-hills would
quickly be blown away, and the country behind
overwhelmed with a moving sand. The sand-
hills are the resort of a very excellent breed of
rabbits. The Dee affords abundance of fine
salmon, cockles, shrimps, soles, and various kinds
of flat fish are taken on the sand-banks and in
the lake ; and the Liverpool markets furnish
an ample supply of the productions of animal
and vegetable nature. Every vessel that comes
into or goes out of the Dee or Mersey is distinctly
seen hence ; and the lake is frequently enlivened
by brigs and schooners beating to windward, as
196
HOYLAKE IN 1813
well as by the anchorage of the Dublin packets,
whose passengers are glad to partake of the
amusements and refreshments which the hotel
affords. It is well calculated for the inhabitants
of the central counties, who, at no great distance
from their own houses, will here find genteel
society, good accommodation at reasonable prices,
and one of the most commodious bathing-places
in the island. The lake is distinguished in the
maps by the appellation of Hoyle Lake ; but Sir
John Stanley, having found it termed High Lake
in some old writings belonging to the estate, has
desired it to be so printed in the advertisements
relative to the establishment of the hotel, which
was opened in 1793."
Or listen to old William Daniell, R.A., who
says in his beautifully illustrated book, entitled,
" A Voyage Round Great Britain," undertaken
in the summer of 1813: —
" At the mouth of the Dee, off Cheshire shore,
are three small islands, which it was our object
to see. They are small scraps saved from the
general waste committed on this coast by the
sea, in consequence, I imagine, of being a little
more elevated than the land by which they were
surrounded ; but they are gradually falling away,
being all composed of sandstone, so soft that
it may be crumbled with the fingers. We landed
197
HOYLAKE IN 1813
on the larger and most remote of them, called
Hilbre Island, which is almost half a mile in
circumference, and lies distant a little more than
a mile from the mainland. Upon it there is a
public - house, the only habitation, and a few
rabbits, the only quadrupeds, to which nature
supplies a very meagre provision, only part of
the island being covered with a scanty sprinkling
of grass. It is most important as a station for
two beacons, which are raised upon it as guides
to vessels through the Swash, a channel between
the Hoyle Sands, leading into Hoylake. An
admirable roadstead for ships of 600 tons burden.
There is another entrance into this road ; but
with the wind in any degree from the eastward,
the Swash is the only outlet by which vessels
can escape to sea."
This was written close on to a hundred years
ago, and even fifty years ago there was a fair
depth of water in the Hoyle Lake, and the
steam packets used to take passengers — mostly
visitors to Hoylake — for day trips to the various
places on the opposite coast of North Wales,
the fishermen charging sixpence each for put-
ting passengers on board the packets. To-day
Hoyle Lake has for all practical purposes ceased
to exist, and the large fishing-boats now dock
at Liverpool. For everything we miss we
perhaps gain something else, and for everything
198
THE VICAR OF HOYLAKE
we gain we lose something, and the loss of the
Hoyle Lake is the price Hoy lake has had to
pay for the Dee improvements. However, she
has gained another attraction, and her splendid
golf links are counted among the best in the
kingdom, but her sea trade is a thing of the
past, and is not likely to be recaptured. Now
Hoylake is a place of residence for those who
collect their incomes elsewhere, and the old sand-
blown road, with the links on one side and wide
hungry-looking fields on the other, that used to
connect Hoylake with West Kirby, is called a
" Drive," and large and pretty houses cluster
along it all the way to West Kirby. Pedes-
trians leave that road to motorists and cyclists,
preferring to take their way with hesitating
footsteps, and a pang of reproving conscience,
across the golf links, for be sure they will spoil
some man's "drive," and add to their knowledge
of Argot.
It is impossible to leave Hoylake without
mentioning the name of the Rev. F. Sanders,
M.A., F.S.A., the learned vicar, who has done
so much during a large number of years to eluci-
date the history of the Hundred of Wirral, and
whose interesting and valuable work has appeared
in Wirral Notes and Queries^ of which he was
one of the editors, and in which publication
appeared his excellent series of biographies,
entitled " Wirral Worthies." He is also joint
199
THE VICAR OF HOYLAKE
editor of the Cheshire Sheaf, and the author of
" Historic Notes on the Bishops of Chester,"
which ran through six volumes of the Chester
Diocesan Gazette^ besides making valuable con-
tributions to the great " Dictionary of National
Biography." In his large and well-chosen lib-
rary is a unique collection of about 300 volumes
of the lives and works of the Bishops of
Chester, commencing with those of Thomas
Morton, 1605, and coming down to the latest
work by the present Bishop. Many of the
volumes are of the greatest rarity, and the vicar
must have read through a prodigious number of
catalogues, for it is only those who have tried
to make a collection of rare books on one par-
ticular subject who are able to realise the amount
of thought and industry it entails.
200
CHAPTER XIV
HILBRE ISLAND
" Give me my scallop-shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope's true gage ;
And thus I'll take my pilgrimage."
IT was on a fine morning towards the end of
May that I set off from Hoylake over the Sands
of Dee. The wind was blowing from a little
north of west, and had a sharp eager feel as it
struck the face, but the sun was shining brightly ;
there was a blue sky overhead, and the coast of
Wales, with some of its higher mountains pencilled
against the clear sky, looked so near as to invite
one to cross over and ascend their slopes, for the
tide was at its lowest ebb, the huge banks and
plains of sand hiding the channel of the Dee, so
that a passage into Wales looked a simple matter.
But I knew where the deep channel lay, cutting
the Cheshire shore off from Wales, and so I
hummed Sir Walter Raleigh's fine lines, which
are set at the head of this chapter, as I set off on
my pilgrimage to the spot where at one time
rested the shrine of the Lady of Hilbree, for
201
THE PILGRIMS
it was here the Benedictines of Saint Werburgh's
established a small cell dedicated to the Virgin
Mary. I felt perhaps a little hurt by the disre-
spectful remarks of old Raphael Holinshed, the
chronicler, from whom Shakespeare obtained the
material for nearly all his historical plays. Listen
how sourly he writes about the pilgrims in whose
footsteps I was walking: "And thither went a
sort of superstitious fools, in pilgrimage to our
Lady of Hilbree, by whose offerings the monks
there were cherished and maintained." But were
they fools, and did pilgrimages invariably lead to
lying and idleness? In Japan pilgrimages take
place to-day just as they used to take place in
England in the fourteenth century, and I spent
three long and happy weeks in the company
of the Buddhist pilgrims walking along the great
central mountain road of Japan to the Buddhist
Temple of Zenkoji, one of the most celebrated in
the whole empire, and a place to which all good
Buddhist pilgrims go. They were among the
happiest people I have ever met, and set out on
their weary pilgrimage as a sort of holiday, many
of them not knowing exactly why they were
making it. I remember asking one woman why
she had become a pilgrim, and she answered,
"It is the spring-time of the year." "Yes," I
said, " but why are you making the pilgrim-
age?" and she said again, "It is the spring-
time of the year, and I've lost my son in the
202
HILBRE ISLAND
war." And I said, " Do you think this pil-
grimage is doing your son any good ? " to which
she replied, "I cannot tell." "Then," I said,
" Do you think you will ever see your son again ? "
and she replied, " I do not know, but good will
come of it, good will come of it." And I expect
that many of our English pilgrims set out in the
same indefinite way, on a sort of holiday, trusting
that good would come of it. Certainly to-day
good will come of it, for nowhere will the lungs
expand to such sweet sea air. My back was now
set fairly to Hoylake, and I went forward over
the sands to visit the three islands, the largest
and westernmost, Hilbre, then Middle Eye,
whilst south of both I stood for a moment on
Little Eye, just to say I had been there. They
are called "islands," although they are "islands
but twice a day, embraced by Neptune only at
the full tydes, and twice a day shakes hands with
great Brittayne." I thought of old William Webb,
who probably never visited the islands, writing in
1622, " Here in the utmost western nook of this
promontory, divided from the land, lies that little
barren island called Ilbree, or Hilbree, in which
it was said there was sometimes a cell of monks, '
though I scarce believe it ; for that kind of people
loved warmer seats than this could ever be." If
Webb ever was there, rest assured it was on a
blowy day in winter, and not on a fine May
morning like that which made me envy the
203
THE CONSTABLE'S SANDS
monks their situation. Although Webb doubted
the fact, there was a cell of monks on Hilbre,
and a very celebrated place it was, and miraculous
too, for Richard, Earl of Chester, who, when a
young man, was performing a pilgrimage to St.
Winifred's Well, in Flintshire, nearly opposite the
islands, was set on by a band of Welsh robbers,
who drove him for refuge to the Abbey of Basing-
werk, where, not feeling too secure, by the advice
of a monk of the cell of Hilbre, he addressed
himself to St. Werburgh, who is said to have
instantly parted the waters of the Dee, throwing
up a huge sand-bank, over which his constable,
the Baron of Halton, marched his men to the
rescue — and that is why the sands are called
" The Constable's Sands " —
" And where the host passed 'twixt bondes
To this day's been called the Constable's Sondes."
A very pretty story, and the legend would
be certain to attract plenty of pilgrims. Not
the slightest traces of the cell remain, but a
relic of the early church of Hilbre was found
about 1853, consisting of a fine cross of red
sandstone, said to be of the ninth or tenth
century, similar in design to some still remaining
in Ireland, and what appears to be a sepulchral
cross is built into the wall of an outhouse, but
it is covered with whitewash, as is the rest of
the building, and its form is only revealed no
204
SHIPPING AT HILBRE
a near examination. There is also a well, nearly
40 feet deep, cut through the solid rock, and which
may possibly have been sunk by the monks.
Mr. Fergusson Irvine, in his interesting lecture
entitled " Village Life in West Kirby three
hundred years ago," published in 1895, savs : —
" The mention of Hilbre as apart from West
Kirby was a feature that puzzled me at first, and
does still to some extent, but there appears to
be abundant evidence that the island was a
really important marine station at this time, and
that there were several, and possibly many,
permanent dwelling-houses upon it.
" From a most interesting Chester document,
recently discovered at Chester by Mr. Sanders,
it appears that three hundred years ago a some-
what eccentric Lincolnshire knight — a certain
Sir Richard Thimblebye, after whom Thimble-
bye's Tower on Chester walls was named —
was a resident in the island as a tenant of Sir
Rowland Stanley, of Hooton, though how Sir
Rowland came to be landlord I am at a loss to
conceive. In addition to Sir Richard there must
have been several shipowners living on the
island, for in the list of shipping for 1572, men-
tioned above, eleven of the ships are definitely
stated to be 'of Hilbree,' and only one from
West Kirby. And in 1544 six ships are entered
at Chester as of Hilbree and one of Caldy.
205
THE MONKS AT HILBRE
"The document found by Mr. Sanders at
Chester is the evidence given by different wit-
nesses in a suit brought by Mr. Massie, who
farmed the rectory of West Kirby, against Sir
Richard Thimblebye. The evidence, which con-
tains many curious details, goes to show that
the claiming of tithes by Mr. Massie from
Hilbre Island was quite a new imposition.
Thus Mr. John Brassie of Tiverton, aged
sixty years, states that 'about forty-four years
ago, being then a child, he was one of the
boys of the Chamber to Abbot Birkenshaw,
then Abbot of St. Werburgh's, Chester, and
by reason thereof . . . familiarly acquainted
with Dom John Smith or Dom Robert Harden,
monks dwelling on the Isle of Hilbree, and that
he was wont to go to Hilbree and there stay
for the space of a fortnight together at certain
times,' at which times he had seen 'fyshe taken
for the monks' use within the water running
about the said island with nets, but whether
with boat or not he doth not remember, and
further saith that he never heard that the said
monks paid any tythe of fyshe taken there to
the parson of West Kirkbie, or any other, for
he saith the said isle was then taken to be of
no parish, but was called a cell, belonging to
the monastery of Chester, and therefore free
from all manner of tythe paying.' "
206
WEST KIRBY
Another witness states that he lived at Hil-
bre with the monks for fourteen years — I pre-
sume as servant — and adds " he knoweth verie
well that the saide Prior and monks had a fyshing
boat called the Jack Rice, and used to fish there
by their servants, and he had often seen much
fish taken there to their use," and further states
" that the monks had certain kine on the same
island and yet paid no tithes of the same. "
There used to be a beer-house on the island,
but customers were too few when the sea traffic
left the coast, and there are tales of great smug-
gling, which went on in the old days, when the
ships stole quietly up the Dee and hid a cargo
of contraband, to be removed when an oppor-
tunity occurred.
You may pass swiftly over the sands from
Little Eye to West Kirby, and if you have not
visited that place for thirty years you will find
that what you left a village has now grown into
a little town, with a parade, in front of which
has been constructed a large salt-water lake on
the seashore, on which are pleasure-boats ; so
that at the lowest ebb, when the sands hide
from sight even the narrow strip of Dee which
makes its way steadily to the sea under the
Welsh coast, the artificial lake gives the visitor
the feeling that he is still resting by the sea,
and he waits with some show of contentment
the incoming tide. Years ago the pretty village
207
WEST KIRBY
of West Kirby spread itself out, and the cottages
nestled amidst the heather and gorse on the
side of its hills. Now there are large residences
on and about the hills, and long streets of houses
and shops have taken the place of thatched
cottages, whilst like Neston, it can boast of
two railway stations belonging to different com-
panies. I prefer to remember West Kirby as
a pretty little village before the railway had
reached it, where one could arrive and fling
oneself down at full length on the clean hill-sides,
feeling that the country had been reached at
last, and that the town and townsfolk had been
left far behind.
Nevertheless it is still possible to find places
near West Kirby that are little visited, and where
you may feel somewhat a lonely Crusoe, but they
need looking for, and when they are found it is
best to keep the secret. But there are some
coigns of vantage on the hill-sides unknown, or
at all events unvisited, even by the oldest inhabi-
tants, where you may lie snugly in the sun and
gaze on two very different tracts of country.
Looking to the north over the wide expanse of
sands, to the west into Wales, to the east over
the country to the Mersey, and to the south over
a rich tract of meadow and pleasantly-wooded
lands of oaks, beeches, and pines in solemn green,
over which go homeward a flight of rooks. It is
hard to realise, as one lies here in the sun, that
208
SHIPPING IN 1565-1572
West Kirby and Hilbre were once little ports
like so many of the places on this side of the
Dee. Yet Liverpool in 1565 only returned sail-
ing ships with a total tonnage of 226, and in
1572, but seven years later, licences were issued
from Chester to twelve vessels belonging to
West Kirby and Hilbre. Hearken to the names
of some of the ships when King Henry VIII.
was on the throne, just a year after he had
married Catherine Parr, and four years before
he died : —
The Pride of West Kirkebye . Master, John Couentrye.
The Trinitie of West Kirkebye „ Peter Robinson.
The Rose of West Kirkebye . . „ Thomas Wright.
The Nutlock of Hilbre ... „ Richard Lytill.
The Goodlock of Caldey ... „ Thomas Hogg.
And here are the details of a cargo : —
"(35 Henry VIII.) — Richard Loker, in a ship
of Hilbre, imported 1600 shepe felles, 68 dere,
69 fawn skins, 6300 broke fells.
"(36 Henry VIII.) — One ship brought in 7
martens' skins, 240 otters, 1 2 wolff skins, 2 scales'
skins, 500 cony fells, 8 fox cases, 46 cople mode
hawke.
"The Katerina of Chester Tor the Archebysshop
of Dublyn brings 2 horseys which are sent to the
Kyng's Grace, and 2 casts of gentle hawks."
An interesting miscellaneous cargo, which shows
that there were shipowners in those days on the
209 o
THE PORT OF DAWPOOL
banks of the Dee. But the Dee silted up, and
at last a good coach road was opened from War-
rinj.;ton to Liverpool, and Liverpool awoke to the
occasion, and established a very superior line of
packets from Liverpool to Dublin. It was then
that the blow to the ports on this side of the Dee
was delivered, and intercourse between England
and Ireland from the river Dee ceased. Daw-
pool, but a couple of miles away, was a favourite
place of departure for Ireland. Dean Swift, who
for years oscillated between Ireland and England
to associate with the wits Addison and, especially,
Dick Steele, set sail from Dublin for England on
the 28th November 1707, landing at " Darpool,"
and the next day was at Parkgate on his way
to Leicester; and in June 1709 he sailed from
" Darpool " for Ireland. That was five years
after he had published his famous "Tale of a
Tub and Battle of the Books." As I look over
to Dawpool from my hiding-place I recollect
some of his saws : "A penny for your thoughts,"
"The sight of you is good for sore eyes," "'Tis
as cheap sitting as standing," "There is none so
blind as they that won't see," " There was all the
world and his wife," and,
" I've often wished that I had clear
For life, six hundred pounds a year."
And one might go on quoting from this clever
satirical eighteenth century writer. Fancy
Dawpool a port! However, in the Gentleman's
210
WEST KIRBY CHURCH
Magazine for May 1822 is the following: "The
establishment of the Port of Dawpool is in pro-
gress, and a speedy report is expected on the
subject from the engineer, Mr. Telford. Inde-
pendently of the general accommodation which
packets would afford at that station, the ready
communication between Dublin and the dep6t at
Chester, where nearly 40,000 stand of arms are
kept and the warlike stores, is of vital import-
ance, especially at a time when the sister island
is in a state of dangerous fermentation."
Below, and a little to the north, the tower of
West Kirby Church is visible, built late in the
fifteenth century or very early in the sixteenth.
It was one of the earliest foundations in Wirral,
for during the restoration which took place in
1870 the foundation of the original Saxon church,
together with the bases of two Norman columns,
fragments of runic crosses, and two slabs with
floriated crosses were discovered.
There is a beautiful and interesting window in
the church decorated in the manner of the four-
teenth century, and on the walls the most in-
teresting tablet is to the memory of Johannes
Van Zoelen, dated 1689. He, poor fellow, was
with the army of the Duke of Schomberg, and
should have sailed with him to Ireland, but whilst
the army was encamped on the plains about
Hoylake and Meols, the men suffered much from
sickness, doubtless brought on by their long and
21 I
WEST KIRBY CHURCH
severe marches over the terrible roads of those
days, and death came like an angel to relieve
his sufferings and set him free. The remaining
monuments are of no particular interest, but the
glory of St. Bridget's Church is its stained glass,
by Kemp, whose beautiful and lasting work
beautifies several of the churches in Wirral.
The east window, of five lights, to the memory
of Eleanor Heywood, is most noteworthy — rich,
yet sober and delicate in colour. The windows
in the south aisle are very lovely, and represent
the early life of Christ. They are erected to the
memory of Richard Barton, Esq., of Caldy Manor,
once a leading family in the Hundred, but now
their land has been sold and is being utilised as a
building estate.
A curious dispute arose between the monks of
the Abbey of Basingwerk and those at Chester
concerning the right of the presentation of the
church, and Randal de Blundeville is stated to
have resorted to military force, and to have boldly
taken possession of it.
Not far from me is a column on the hill quite
50 feet high, and though it has stood there for
nearly seventy years there was nobody I ques-
tioned in West Kirby who could tell me why or
when it was erected, although the following in-
scription is cut plainly upon it : — " This column
was erected by the trustees of the Liverpool
docks, by permission of John Shaw Leigh, Esq.,
212
GRANGE
owner of the land, who also granted the stone for
its erection, A.D. 1841, as a beacon for mariners
frequenting the river Mersey and its vicinity."
Just over the hill to the east lies Grange, which
is mentioned in Domesday Book as being the
property of Hugh de Mara, but which passed
away soon after, along with West Kirby, to
the Abbot and Convent of Basingwerk, on the
opposite shore of the Dee, ultimately coming
into the possession of the Gleggs, who held it
for many generations, and where was once their
ancient hall. How changed is the scene from
those days ! Then there was a tiny hamlet by
the side of the Dee, striving, after its manner, to
become a port, owning ships, and getting its share
of the trade that was on foot. Now the houses
nestle against the western slopes of the hill,
securely sheltered from the biting east wind, and-
the climate down there is soft and balmy ; up
here " there's the wind on the heath, brother,"
and " who would wish to die ? "
To the south-east is Caldy, nestling under and
about its hill, and few readers of Ormerod's de-
scription of it would recognise the Caldy of to-day,
for he writes : " The village consists of a collec-
tion of straggling fishermen's huts scattered over
an eminence near the estuary, which is separated
by a deep rocky valley from the parish of Thurs-
tanston." Now it is a pretty village, thanks to
Richard Watson Barton, late of Springwood,
213
CALDY
near Manchester, Esquire, who purchased the
property in 1832, and at once set to work to
rebuild the cottages and improve his estate.
Caldy is mentioned in the Domesday Survey
as Calders, and was once part of the great pos-
sessions of the powerful Robert de Rodelent, one
of the Earl of Chester's barons, who perished,
sword in hand, in Wales, under a shower of
arrows, for none of his enemies dared approach
him with the sword. At his death the property
passed, presumably, to his illegitimate son, whose
heiress, Agnes de Thurstaston, conveyed it by
marriage to the Heselwalls, from whom it passed,
along with the neighbouring Manors of Heswall
and Thurstaston, to the Whitmores, from whose
representatives it was purchased by Mr. Barton.
Recently it has been developed as a building
estate, and pretty dwellings are appearing on and
about the hill, which stands 242 feet above the
sea level, and commands extensive views up
and down the river Dee and over it into Wales.
On Caldy Hill I was lucky enough to put up a
nightjar, and in a very little time discovered her
two young ones nestling amidst the bracken.
This interesting bird is one of the latest of our
summer migrants to arrive, and on migration
from Africa crosses Malta, arriving in England
about the middle of May or early in June, and I
have found their two beautiful eggs as late in
the season as August.
214
ON GOING HOME
Below me is a town ( Hoylake-cum-West Kirby)
whose population has grown from 148 in 1801
to nearly 10,000 in 1909. All things are subject
to change, but to change and to change for the
better are two different things ; and the Hundred
of Wirral is changing rapidly, for in many places
I have noticed commercial activity crushing out
rural avocations. If this goes on, as it seems
likely to, we shall gain something, but without
doubt we shall lose something else very precious
to our life — I mean the rural life and occupation
of this interesting tract of land. We shall grow
rich, doubtless ; but let me add that there is an
old proverb which states that a crown is no cure
for a headache.
And now it is time to get up and go home, for
we have been a long journey ; and at last we
come blithely towards the end, knowing that
"the sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether
he eat little or much," and that " the smoke of
a man's own house is better than the fire of
another's."
215
SCALE- 2 MILES TO I INCH
2 3
INDEX
ATHELSTAN, 42
Axon, Ralph, 168
BARTON, RICHARD, 212-213
Baunville, Philip de, 148
- Thomas de, 148
Bebington, 28-30, 32-36
Quarries, 150
Richard, 32
Bidston, 173-174, 178-179
Birkenhead Priory, 15-17
— Sir John, 82
Blacon Point, 85
Blore Heath, 151-152
Blundeville, Randal de, 212
Booston Woods, 59
Boteler, Lady Isabel, 64
Bright, Henry A., 23
Brimstage, 150-154
Brocklebank memorial win-
dow, 159
Bromborough Pool and village,
36-46
Brunanburh, Battle of, 42-43
Bryans, H. W., windows by,
102
Bull-baiting, 37
Bunbury, family of, 76-78
Burne-Jones, Sir E., windows
by, 126-127
Burton, 107-116
Bushell, Christopher, 128
CALDY, 213-214
Capenhurst, 100-102
Carlett Park, 48
Cartwright, Bishop, 13, 97
Chester, Earls of, Hugh Lupus,
83, 164
Chester, Earls of, Randel de
Meschines, II, 53
Richard, 204
Cholmondeley, Lord, 101
Chorlton, 80-8 1
Gibber, Theophilus, 138
Clarence, Duchess of, 121-122
Clarke, Rev. Samuel, 93
Cock-fighting, 125
Congreve, Colonel Walter N.,
V.C., 109-110
William, 108-109
Constable's Sands, 204
Coupelond, Dawe de, 149
Cow Charity, 35, 171
Cust, Sir Edward, 184
DANIELL, WILLIAM, R.A., 134,
197
Davies, Dean, 192
Mrs. Mary, 86-88
Dawpool Hall, 161
Port of. 210-21 1
Delany, Mrs., letter of, 136-137
Denhall, 116
Derby, Charles, 8th Earl of, 185
Ferdinando,5thEarlof, 184
- James, 7th Earl of, 175
letter to his chil-
dren, 176
letter to Cromwell,
175-176
beheaded, 176
William, 6th Earl of, 125,
173, 1 80
Dibbensdale, 141
Dickens, Charles, 34
Dove-cot, ancient, 1 56
Dove Point, 190
217
INDEX
Dayton's " Polyolbion," 152
EASTHAM 47-52
Edward I. at Shotwick, 91
Ellesmere, 65-66
FLODDEN FIELD, 30-32
Forster, General, 98
Forwood, Sir William, 46
GAYTON, 154-156
Gladstone, Henry N., 108
Glazier family, 82
Glegg, William, 155
Goodacre, James, 171
Grange, 213
Greasby, 167
Grosvenor, Sir Thomas, 97
HAGGASSMAN, JOHN, 115
Halton, Baron of, 204
Hamilton, Lady, 116-119
Hardware family, 37
Hauworthe, Robert, 71
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 2 1-24, 51
Henry, Matthew, 39
Heswall, 157-160
Hilbre Island, 201-206
Hockenhull, Richard de, 92
Holinshed, Raphael, 31, 202
Hooton, 52-59
Horn of the Forester, 11-12
Hough, William, 188
Hoylake, 190-200
Hoyle Lake, the, 190, 194
Hugh Lupus, 83, 164
INMAN, WILLIAM, 172, 187
Irby, 166-167
Irvine, W. Fergusson, 145, 156,
205
Ismay, Thomas Henry, 161,
165-166
JACOBITES, 98-99
King, Edward, 137
King's Evil, 194
Kingsley, Charles, 138-139
LACY, JOHN DE, 68
Lamport, Mr., 183
Landican, 168
Lea, manor of, 82
Leasowe, 183-188
Leland's description of Wirral,
1-4
Lever, W. H., 25
Lighthouses, earliest, 188
Lincoln, Earls of, 69, 71
Long, Colonel, 109-110
MADDOCK, Brothers, 102
Manchester Ship Canal, 48
Marlborough, Duchess of, 109
Marriage, romantic, 148-149
Marston Moor, 105
Massey, family of, 96-97, 1 1 1
William, 97-100, in
Mayer, Joseph, 33
Museum, 33-34
Meols, 188-190
Milton, John, 137
Minshal, John, 33
Mollington, 83-84
Monks' Stepping Stones, 144,
146
Monmouth, James, Duke of,
185
Morrell, Rev. P. F. A., 113
Morris, William, windows by
126-127
Mulleneaux, Samuel, 193
NAYLOR, RICHARD C., 58, 65
Nesse, 116
Neston, 120-128
New Brighton, 182
Nightjar, 214
OLDFIELD, 160
Oliver, Prior of Birkenhead, 16
KEMP, windows t by, 158, 170- Ormerod, G., home of, 80
171, 212 Overpool, 65
218
INDEX
Oxford, Earl of, 103
Oxton, 169-170
PARKGATE, 128-139
Pennant House, Bebington, 33
Picton, Sir James, 161
Plymyard, 49
Poictiers, Battle of, 63
Pontoon, 66
Poole, Sir James, 101
Sir'John, 63, 72
— Randall de Pull, 63
— Thomas, 60
— William, the Rake, 64
Poole Hall, 60-65
Port Sunlight, 24-27
Prenton, 143-145
Price's Patent Candle Company,
40
Puddington, 96
QUAKERS' graves, 115
RABY MERE, 140
Rake Hall, 79
Richardson, Richard, 101
— Rev. R., 102
Road-makers, 123
Rock Ferry, 21-24
Rodelent, Robert de, 83, 164,
214
Ryley, S. W., "The Itinerant,"
131-132
SANDERS, Rev. F., 54, 199, 205
Saughall, Great, 86, 88
— Massey, 186
Schomberg, Duke of, 191
Seward, Miss, 195
Shotwick, 90-95
Shovel, Admiral Sir C., 193
Shropshire Union Canal, 75
Skene's " Celtic Scotland," 43
Smith, H. Ecroyd, 190
Smugglers, 131, 207
Spanish Armada, 57
Stained - glass windows (see
Windows)
Stanlaw Point and Abbey, 66-73
Stanley, Sir Edward, 31
Edward, 54-56
— Sir John, 174, 197
- Monuments, 49-50
— Sir Rowland, 53-54, 160,205
- Sir William, 56
- William de, 148-149
Stanlow (see Stanlaw)
Stanney, 76-77
Stoke, 77-79
Stoke in 1 8 16, 74
Storeton, 147-148
Quarries, 149
Stow, John, 29
Stuart, James (the Pretender)
97-98
Submarine Forest, 189
Swift, Dean, 210
Sylvestre, Alan, 11,53
THIMBLEBYE, SIR RICHARD,
205, 206
Thornton Hough, 154
Trier's Stone, 162
Thurstaston, 161-164
Tobin, J. A., 51
Torr, John, 48
Tranmere, 18-20
Troutbeck, Sir John, 1 5 1
UPTON, 172
VAN ZOELEN, JOHN, 191, 211
Vyner, Sir Robert, 178
WALLASEY, 179-180
Wallasey Stake (first sweep-
stakes), 1 86
Wargraves, the, 42, 43
Waugh, Edwin, 183
Webb's description of Wirral,
7-9
West Kirby, 206-212
and Hilbre, shipping
of, 209
Whitby, 75
Whitmore family, 163
'9
INDEX
Wicksted, Richard, 81
Willaston, 103-105
William III., 155, 193
Wills, General, 98
Wilson, Bishop, 111-112
Windows, stained-glass, 20, 30,
79, 165
by Bryans, 102
by Burne-Jones and
Morris, 126, 127
Windows, stained -glass, by
Kemp, 158, 170-171, 212
Wirral Archers, 91
Wirral Footpaths Association,
142
Wirral Horn, n, 12
Woodchurch, 170-171
YOUNG, ARTHUR, 123, 147
Henry, 22
FINIS
Printed by BALLANTYNK, HANSON Jr* Co.
Edinburgh fy London
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
Form L9-40m-7,'56(C790s4)444
THE LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
670 A perambulation
thelQO of.
A 000 991 080 3
DA
670
C6Y?
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11